Are Sunday Comics dead?

I do not believe journalism will die. We need people to tell us stories.

I do not believe local newspapers will die. We are perversely interested in all the things our neighbors do.

I do not believe cartoons or comic strips will die. We need to laugh, especially during trying times.

But I DO believe that when a local daily newspaper (like mine) eliminates its Sunday-morning comics section on the grounds of cutting costs (which they did), leaving the paper's patrons to find their favorite strips on the internet (you can find more than you ever thought possible), then those same patrons will discover that "all the news they can use" can ALSO be freely found floating within the Internet Cloud -- let's emphasize the word FREELY -- and might choose to discontinue their subscription to the local paper.

But alas, we don't, because how would we ever find out which of our neighbors is getting married, who had a baby, who was put in jail, or who died this week?

The bean counters have us over a barrel, and it ain't pretty.