The eventual destination of the printed newspaper, then, looks likely to be the equivalent of the artisanal cheese.

Far too much gets written about the future of the media,mostly by navel gazing journalists but Ian Jack's piece in this morning's Guardian is well worth a read.

At their best, newspapers became beautiful objects. I shall miss them reminds us that newspapers need revenue, and their income still comes overwhelmingly from their printed rather than digital editions but advertising has declined and will never return to print in anything like its previous volumes.

Lessons that have been known for sometime yet the industry has clung onto the flawed model.

As Jack writes

If you like newspapers, the future looks dark. Only a couple of the qualities – the Telegraph and the Financial Times – make any money. If you like national newspapers and live at a distance from London, the future looks even darker. The supply chain that takes newspapers from printing presses to newsagents is fragile.

But to me his last paragraph sums up all that is wrong with the industry

This week I went to a glamorous event in the Banqueting House in Whitehall where a panel of the great and good, led by Sir Harold Evans, debated regulation of the press. Someone from the floor said the phrase "dying industry" and produced a small stir in the chamber, as though some truths were better parked outside in the cloakroom.