Trouble for Midwestern Dailies; Google Enters Browser Sweepstakes

(MoneyWatch)  Much of the time, in trying to cover the media industry, I find myself almost cross-eyed trying to keep track of old media and new media companies simultaneously. Today's no exception. The venerable St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which was established by none other than Joseph Pulitzer, has announced 18 more layoffs. Combined with the 31 announced last March, this amounts to approximately a 4.5 percent reduction in the newspaper's workforce so far this year.

In another sign of the weakness in the newspaper industry, The Associated Press has been receiving cancellation notices from U.S. newspapers, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, hometown newspaper for the venue of this week's Republican Convention. Even casual newspaper readers have started noticing that more and more of the articles in their daily paper come via the AP. Should this old cooperative of U.S. newspapers begin to falter, therefore, the demise of an entire industry will grow ever more imminent.

So, over to new media companies, shall we?
Shame on Google! Not only has it launched its new Chrome browser for Windows machines only, the company doesn't even have a solid release date for versions that are compatible with Macs or Linux operating systems. Google's entry into the browser competition should shake up what has been Microsoft's dominance ever since former rival Netscape was vanquished.

IE currently has 72.15% of the browser market, Firefox 19.73%, and Safari 6.37%. For Chrome to become a serious contender for even 3rd place, however, it will have to broaden its compatibility beyond PCs.

Microsoft already has an upgrade, I.E.8, in beta, but according to some early reviews, this browser places a more demanding load on your PC than Windows XP itself! So, once Google gets its browser act together, the search giant should make serious inroads, especially because Chrome appears to be lighter and faster than any other browser out there.