Last week someone asked me to go on TV to talk about the future of newspapers based on my comment on how to save the Boston Globe. It's clear to me that there are many people who like to read a newspaper with their morning coffee. 50 years ago, there were plenty of people who used to read that newspaper with a coffee and a cigarette. Today, fewer people take all three at breakfast time. (In 1944, 41% of Americans polled were smokers, 21% were in 2007). Will dead-tree-news (DTN) go the way of the cigarette? In some ways, yes.

Cigarettes and DTN are different. When cigarettes are used as directed they kill their users. When DTN is printed and distributed, it kills its owners -- or to be more precise, it loses money which is increasingly forcing its owners to choose between closing DTN down or absorbing its losses. Another difference is that the generation that's addicted to DTN will not keep reading forever; whereas cigarette makers are skilled at recruiting new addicts to replace the ones it kills.

But cigarettes and DTN also will likely have something in common. As the number of smokers has steadily declined in the U.S., the cigarette makers have skillfully raised prices to cover the higher unit costs and profit expectations. In 1960, a pack of cigarettes went for $0.35, today the price is up as high as $9. As I posted, DTN is clearly a money loser so its owners are going to have to raise its price if they hope to at least cover the costs of printing and distributing it to people.