The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News have both gone under, and are being offered up in a private auction held in New York City. Executives of Revlon are making a bid for the Philadelphia papers along with creditors and a Canadian investment firm.

Fox News reported that the two papers had accumulated $390 million in debt by February 2009 forcing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The Philadelphia papers employ more than 4000 people in the area.

One has to wonder if the outcome would have been much different had the Philadelphia papers acquired and transitioned their companies to something like Philadelphia.com or Philadelphia.US. Boulevards New Media own Philadelphia.com, and Kraft Foods own Philadelphia.US. The missing ingredient is a premium city domain name.

Update 4/29/10: Bloomberg report that the auction concluded with both Philadelphia newspapers being acquired for $139 million by a group of lenders that included Angelo Gordon & Co. and a Credit Suisse Group AG unit. The sale must still be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge. The new owners have committed to preserving employees’ jobs.

These figures were released April 26, 2010 by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Even the ever popular Sunday edition of local papers dropped a sharp 6.5 percent.

USA Today, once the most popular paper in the country, is reported to have lost 13.6% of its circulation. That’s enormous. My theory is that developed premium city domain names in leading web addresses will eventually replace the traditional local newspaper. The logic, familiarity, and instant public recognition built into a pure city domain name creates the ideal portal for local news.

Local newspaper ad revenue is reported to have also slipped further although the degree of loss appears to be slowing over time.

Interestingly, the Audit Bureau report stated The Wall Street Journal is the only paper among the top 25 that actually experienced an increase in readership! It’s circulation increased .5% allowing it to surpass USA Today as the nation’s most read paper.

What this means is nearly self-evident. The news delivery model has experienced an unprecedented sea change, and traditional hardcopy news organizations found themselves on the wrong side of a new internet equation. Many of them continued to brand under an old moniker that was illogical, and yesteryear.

Want to see it done right? Visit Boston.com! They’re receiving over 3 million visitors per month and in excess of 20 million monthly visits (source: Compete.com). Try competing with that.

What about the #3 circulation, The New York Times, you ask? The answer: A staggering 8.5% loss of circulation in their weekday readership. No matter how it’s sliced, times are changing. The question is … what will these news organizations have to do to reinvent themselves? I believe they must look to the Boston.com example. Therein lies about 75% of the answer.

More on this topic …

Huge Newspaper Investor Pulls Out, Way Out!

More Shocking Newspaper Decline

Newspapers in America Being Led to the Exit

Boulevard’s portfolio of city domains is simply stunning, and the collective value almost priceless. Examples of their properties …

Following some years later came the official releases of .info (information), .biz (business), and .US (United States) domain name extensions. The competition was global and intense for city domain names in these addresses. Many individuals and companies had “seen the light”, and recognized the incredible opportunity before them.

A parallel story which was unfolding alongside the domain name evolution was the unraveling of traditional newspapers and print media. Many newspapers did not understand that their own demise was at hand. In short, their print advertising plummeted. Moreover, newspapers failed to grab the brass ring … which was to acquire a pure city domain name and to adequately position themselves for the internet future.

There were exceptions, however. The Charlotte Observer obtained Charlotte.com, The Boston Globe acquired Boston.com, and the former Knight Ridder Publishing (who owned the Miami Herald) captured Miami.com. All good moves.

Further illustrating the current emergency underway with print newspapers in America is the recent bankruptcy declaration of the Denver Post. They are the 13th newspaper bankruptcy filing by a U.S. newspaper publisher in only 13 months. Read about it here.

Menius Enterprises worked diligently beginning in year 2001 to acquire a number of high value geo domain properties, including: Charlotte.US, Detroit.US, Portland.US, California.biz, Miami.biz, NewOrleans.biz, NorthCarolina.info, Indiana.info, and Sacramento.info. Since then, we have sold a number of pure geo domain names and geo-targeted domains.

Morris Communications (based in Augusta, Georgia) obtained cities such as Nashville.biz, Cleveland.biz, and StLouis.biz.

City domain names are rare and have few substitutes. They appeal to a large clientele yielding relevance for local residents, both local and global businesses, and international travelers to the area. Cities have their own unique personality. And a timeless, enduring quality.