From the (April 1) Guardian:

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink

• Newspaper to be available only on messaging service
• Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters

While 2008 and 2009 are the high-water marks in terms of anni horribli for the U.S. newspaper industry, the same ain't necessarily so across Europe, where some publishers have been more creative about business problem-solving. For example, the news is free, but people pay for related services.

From AP via nytimes.com (posted March 29):

The Huffington Post said Sunday that it would bankroll a group of investigative journalists and make the nation’s economy an initial priority for coverage.

The Web site is collaborating with The Atlantic Philanthropies and other donors to create the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, with an initial budget of $1.75 million.

That should be enough for 10 staff journalists who will primarily coordinate coverage with freelancers, said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post.

Work that the journalists produce will be available for any publication or Web site to use at the same time it is posted on The Huffington Post, she said.

From the NYT:

Maybe once a year, a city has a news day as heavy as the one that just hit Detroit: The White House forced out the chairman of General Motors, word leaked that the administration wanted Chrysler to hitch its fortunes to Fiat, and Michigan State University’s men’s basketball team reached the Final Four, which will be held in Detroit.

All of this news would have landed on hundreds of thousands of Motor City doorsteps and driveways on Monday morning, in the form of The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

Would have, that is, except that Monday — of all days — was the long-planned first day of the newspapers’ new strategy for surviving the economic crisis by ending home delivery on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Instead, on those days, they are directing readers to their Web sites and offering a truncated print version at stores, newsstands and street boxes.

“This morning, I felt like something was missing,” said Nancy Nester, 51, a program coordinator at a traumatic brain injury center who is from West Bloomfield and has subscribed to both papers for four years. “There was this feeling of emptiness.”

She did not even bother to pick up the condensed print versions that were offered free on Monday. “I don’t have time to stop at the store,” she said. “That’s why I have home delivery.”