In a November 5 article the Wall Street Journal described the Fourth Estate as in trouble. The article reported the falling circulations of the nation's major newspapers, as documented in excruciating detail by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Online news was identified as the culprit. Hello! Online news is clearly a part of what the WSJ grandly calls the Fourth Estate. Let's analyze the situation. Big newspapers have lots of ads. (That's how they make their money.) The ads must be diluted with news articles—long articles. The print newspapers are delivered after those who are interested in the news have heard the news on the radio or T-V. News magazines like Time follow up with full fact-checked reports in color and with (sometimes) in-depth analysis. All these factors make some print newspapers obsolete. Now compare the big newspapers with online Cedar Key News. The online readership of Cedar Key News has increased 53 percent in the past twelve months, from 554 to 850 visits per day. Cedar Key News provides LOCAL news, not days or a week later, but in some cases minutes or hours after the event. Notice the emphasis on "local." Some of the increase in readers results from new readers seeing our biweekly print edition. Some online visits stem from hot local issues. Some visits are to get hurricane news. Whatever the reason, Cedar Key news is in demand. If you are reading this shameless editorial boosterism in the old fashioned print format, check us out at www.cedarkeynews. And put us on your favorites pull-down menu. | 