http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/business/media/24paper.html?_r=1&hpw

Daily newspapers are going the way of the horse and buggy for many cities, and the New York Times recently reported yet another example.

In Michigan, the Flint, Saginaw and Bay City papers are cutting back their circulation to only three days a week, while the Ann Arbor newspaper will switch to twice a week. Gannett newspapers recently announced its second mandatory weeklong unpaid furlough of 2009 for its employees, while Newhouse-family-owned papers are also implementing mandatory unpaid leave, for two weeks.

Yes, PR professionals will continue to serve their clients, with or without daily papers, and we will find no shortage of public relations opportunities in the changing media landscape. But it still is a sad time as we watch friends that we’ve worked with for years in newspapers, magazines and even local TV suffer through layoffs and reorganizations. Many of us worked in the media before taking up the PR profession, and we are seeing former co-workers lose their jobs, with new cutback announcements coming out nearly every day.

One issue to keep an eye out for as the traditional media industry downsizes: the PR job market will be flooded with resumes, as more media types look to make the shift into public relations as their new career path.