Today's warning on newspaper future: 'Several cities may be without newspapers next year'

A financial group, assigning negatives to just about every media form's business, predicts that "several cities will be without newspapers." The country's terrible business outlook, coupled with incredibly short-sighted media ownership, has left a large number of companies at financial risk, including Tribune Co. and McClatchy Co., both of whose debt it lists as "junk."

It's all part of a worldwide economic hit, Fitch Ratings says, predicting a "global depression" next year. A few years ago, a Pentagon analysis predicted such an event in the case oil prices topped $90 a share. They were, as we all know, well above that for much of the past year, and analysts are predicting they'll go back soon. Unfortunately, it looks like this is one thing the Pentagon got right, and media companies are in the line of fire economically.