Dead as a mackerel

I'm sitting here having breakfast in an outdoor cafe in Cagli, Italy. Along comes this article on Techcrunch.com titled "Is Print Media Doomed Worldwide or Just in the US." Basically, as seemingly always at the new media sites, the conclusion is "You bet. Dead as a mackerel." Even here in Italy. So I look around the cafe tables. Twenty-two people. Seventeen reading newspapers and the others talking with newspapers laying in front of them. Dead as a mackerel, I guess.