A cautionary tale.

The article comments on how the acquisition of the "Des Moines Register" by the Gannett Co. has affected the newspaper. In its first year of ownership alone, Gannett forced up the paper's profit margin from 8% to nearly 15%. Then corporate management decided that statewide circulation wasn't cost-effective. So the paper pulled back its delivery trucks and closed its small-town bureaus. Circulation dropped, profits rose some more. Then the newspaper's editorial budget was cut and the news hole shrank as the advertising hole grew. Investigative reporting teams were disbanded, sports coverage was limited, and opinion columns were eliminated-not because editors wanted to but because they had to so as to boost profits even more.