Everyday I hear one newspaper after another is going into bankruptcy. Now, both of the Chicago newspaper giants, Chicago Tribune and Sun Times, are going down. What is the future of the newspaper industry? Is there one? Recently there was an article on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook about this very point. It seems that while the big guys are going down for the count, the smaller local community based online papers are making some headway. How? It seems that investigative reporting successes have made smaller sized newspaper, like the Voice of San Diego, gain not only awards but also credibility and readership. You can listen and read more below:http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2009/02/the-future-of-the-news/This really made me believe further into some of the few truths in life. One of which says "that simplicity goes a long way". Like many things in life, it all about the cycle. Newspaper business has been struggling for a long while now. Ad revenue slowly disappearing, readership down, and the distribution that falling like the sand in your hand. It has gotten big and sluggish. So much content and ads struggle to compete for your attention.On the other hand, getting back to the roots of investigative reporting, the smaller local papers has gotten the focus back. This sounds too familiar.There some parallels here. When Yahoo and other search engines matured, local search became more and more relevant and popular. Two years ago, everyone in the search engine industry was all over local search. I guess it's the same for the news industry as well.In this sea of dreadfully depressing economic climate, it's great to hear some encouraging news.