Why blame the PE firms for failing where nobody else has succeeded. Here is what I think the moral of the story should have been: The fact that PE firms have failed in this industry confirms that newspapers can't cut simply costs and expect profitability. If that was possible, the PE firms, the grandmasters of cost reduction would have figured it out. At least someone was ready to lay some big bets on newspapers (albeit with other people's money). Perhaps some of the papers who aren't heavily indebted should also lay down some big bets, and experiment with radically new revenue growth strategies, instead of going Chapter 11 and folding.