I live in Northern Virginia where if you child settles on attending George Mason University, you are considered a failure as a parent and the newpaper readership is about twice as high as it is in majority black Prince Georges County Maryland.

What data do you have to believe that NYC is doing great. the NYC schools at least do better than Philly in that they graduate 65% of the entering freshmen. Of course, the school system is only 14% white and many of those are probably immigrants. A school system that is 37% Hispanic and 37% black is probably not producing enough future newspaper readers for the existing newspapers to survive.

Shaun, so very nice to read you again on something not Obama/Clinton/Iraq related again!

Superdestroyer is correct regarding the state of education (and what it implies clearly and obviously about literacy, a subject we hear much about separately). Not everyone lives the life of, say, a typical blogger. Cultural influences and lack of personal and intellectual development affect not only literacy but the willingness to read not only newspapers but books (I have sixty boxes of them at home and a spare room containing 100 more books if not more, have four currently in the cab of my truck for use at lunchtime today, and so on).

Why read newspapers or books when you can chatter with your friends in either real-time or with e-mail, check out what the celebs are doing, and enjoy porn on the Internet instead?

I did not mention blacks in my comments. However, it is a fact that blacks read newspaper much less than whites and that Hispanics and Asians read the newspaper less than blacks.

Philadelphia only graduates 55% of its entering freshmen and many of those who do graduate are not really literate. Yet, the elite whites are newspapers whose children attend majority white prep schools, who lived in the good neighborhoods, and who attend private universities, refuse to even face the idea that their support for unlimited immigration, going easy on criminals, and putting social engineering in front of academic learning was limiting their own customer bases.

The best way to ensure that people read newspaper is to ensure that they are educated, connected, and safe. That is three things that virtually all big city newspapers have opposed and editorialized against.

It is obvious that you remain clueless to how off-putting your racist bilge is. Is there anything on God's green earth that you don't connect to blacks and/or immigrants?

Shame. Shame on you.

Yet, the editorial boards of almost all big city newspapers have been consistent in their editorial support for policies and programs that ensure that people are bowling alone.

You have to care about your community to read the community newspaper. Big cities are organize to ensure that people stop caring about their community.