Once Craigslist destroyed classified-ad sales and the economic downturn did the same for display ads and inserts, not so good. But that wasn't 30 years ago. In fact, 20-percent profit margins were more or less the industry standard well into this decade: http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/narrat...t=4&media=2
I suppose I could get into the intricacies of the JOA between the Rocky and the Denver Post (d.b.a. the Denver Newspaper Agency), and why Scripps decided to leave the market even though they were in better financial shape than MediaNews Group's Post, which almost drove the DNA into bankruptcy. (MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton is worth an entire chapter by himself -- and deserving of his own circle of Hades, according to most of the MNG people I know.)
I could go deeper into the past, to when Scripps diverted profits from the newspaper division to build up its cable network properties (including The Food Network and HGTV) instead of reinvesting in its main product, then abandoned print at the first sign of trouble.
But I'm not all that interested in debating with someone whose knowledge of the industry comes from the pages of a single book.
So, enjoy.