Who's Next?

Recently I couldn't help but pause when I learned that the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) will cease publishing a daily newspaper. I'll mourn it's passing when the last daily edition is printed next April.

As a young PR exec I once hustled down Michigan Avenue to a Christian Science Reading Room to retrieve a copy of the paper after it published a glowing story I worked on for a client. Placing a story in such a venerable institution was a BIG DEAL.

For much of its 100-year history, the Monitor has been a trendsetter although daily circulation has been declining for 40 years. To keep it afloat big annual subsidies are required from the Christian Science church. CSM will still be around via its website, a daily paid email and a glossy weekly newsmagazine.

Virtually every daily paper is slipping in circulation. Ad revenues -- especially in this economy -- are very tight. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has undergone a radical makeover reducing the actual size of the paper and newshole.

In about 10 years, most pundits predict only a handful of daily papers will survive. Give the Monitor credit for getting out in front of this trend. Their experiment will be watched very closely.