Christian Science Monitor quitting print

The Christian Science Monitor announced Tuesday that it will no longer publish its daily print edition after April, switching instead to a Web-only format plus a new Sunday magazine.

The move is money related, of course. By shutting off its presses, the CSM can keep its foreign bureaus open and operating. For a paper that has built a strong reputation for international coverage, this is an important move.

Is this the way newspapers are headed? Will they soon abandon printed matter in favor of offering Web only content? If so, how will readers accustomed to getting their hard copies adjust — and how will readers without Internet access cope?

That's a big deal right there. It used to be that anyone with the ability to read and the wherewithal to come up with the price of a daily newspaper could get access to the day's news. Should this trend continue, people will need a television or computer literacy skills to access news — the very same news that so many swear is so vital to democracy.

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