Future of the newspaper

It is hard to deny that the newpaper industry is going through a transitional period right now. This was brought on by both the rapid advancement in technology and the change in readership. No to mention many publicatins are taking a hit right now in the midst of our economic turmoil. For instance, long standing newspaper the Rocky Mountain News is currently up for sale. If nobody purchases it it will just cease to exist. That's strange to me as I always remember my dad reading the Rocky Mountain News when I was growing up. It is a changing world that we are forced to adapt with, or perish. The media industry is no different. The market for online media is becoming stronger everyday. Our old friend the newspaper is beginning to follow suit. Many daily news readers, especially the younger generation, are turning to the net for their news these days. It has it's advantages. You can read news that it updated throughout the day, you can get what news you want when you want it, and it is free (for the most part) and easy. This new availability of choices allows you to skip what you don't care about and move on to what you're interested in. Is this really a good thing though? The newspaper has been good to our culture. It created a common base of knowledge in our culture because everyone was reading the same stuff. The availability of choices now seems like it is fragmenting the consumers into smaller groups who are interested it the same things. The possibilities are many for the online media. However, is it going to fill the shoes being left by the slow demise of the newspaper? My generation is going to be the ones to find out.