As the newspaper business goes south, many of us are wondering what will happen to investigative journalists, the standard-bearers of the third fourth estate and a crucial check to unfettered power. The Associated Press has moved to address this problem in announcing it will begin distributing stories from four prominent not-for-profit reporting organizations.

The sad fact is that many newspapers can no long pay for their own reporting from the revenues of advertising and circulation sales. The four organizations, however, operate on a different donor model. The Center for Public Integrity, ProPublica, The Center for Investigative Journalism, and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University are already AP members, which no doubt made the decision to add their work to the wire offerings easier.

The NY Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) has decided to double down on a failing strategy: Charge more for print. As circulation declines, the ailing newspaper company has decided to extract as much revenue as possible from its tangible product, despite the fact that the market is shrinking.

Starting Monday, the company's flagship newspaper will cost $2 an increase of a third from the previous newsstand price of $1.50.

Most newspapers were just hanging on in 2008, but things got a lot worse in the first quarter of 2009.

The New York Times reports that some newspapers saw their ad revenue plunge 30% in the first three months of the year compared to the same quarter in the prior year. The decline in spending brought about by the recession is combining with the flight from print to devastate publishers.

According to the Times, industry analysts and executives "are expecting declines sharp enough to wipe out profit margins at many papers that, despite two years of battering, had stayed comfortably in the black, and to push already-weak publishers closer to bankruptcy, perhaps even closure."

The daily biscuits. With the June deadline for Steve Job's reappearance as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO coming on fast, speculation in the media has begun to build that Jobs will choose to retire. That would be a horrifically bad thing for Apple shareholders, who have done very well of late. Sentiment on Apple is holding strong, so at least some people don't think Steve is bowing out.

The industry standard in journalism, The New York Times, is revisiting the issue of charging for online content.

New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Chairman Authur Sulzberger, Jr., told a Stony Brook (N.Y.) University audience Thursday that the company is considering "incremental" charges for website users, while keeping most of its site free, Bloomberg News reported.

Journalism in the United States is hurtling toward a new era. The trouble is, no one in the craft knows whether the new period will represent the start of a new golden age... or a brave new world.

There are breathtaking technologies, platforms, and distribution channels that hold the promise of bringing news, news analysis, information, and more, to countless new markets and to new audiences. This holds the promise of increasing knowledge, learning, public input and citizen awareness -- as well as publishers' online revenue streams.

The American Society of Newspapers Editors has canceled its annual convention for the first time since 1945 mainly because newspapers don't have enough money to buy the requisite packets of Splenda for the welcome breakfast, let alone book a hotel and buy plane tickets.

The event had been scheduled for April 26-29 at the Fairmont hotel in Chicago, and the cancellation will likely result in some fees.