Newsday and Chronicle on the Eve of Destruction

(MoneyWatch)  So both the San Francisco Chronicle and Newsday intend to try and charge for their online content. That's precisely the kind of idea one would expect from the likes of the Donner Party, cornered, starving, desperate.

As they consume what is left of their operations in this manner, we can now safely start composing the obituaries of these two storied newspapers. Even if they disappear only partially and briefly behind the pay wall, their audiences will dwindle, and their brands will weaken.

By the time their clueless executives reverse this wrong-headed strategy, other news organizations will have stolen marker share. Newsday, in the midst of the busiest, most crowded media market on the planet, has competitors on every flank.

The Chronicle is in a smaller market with fewer competitors, but this news has to cheer the San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, the Marin Independent Journal, the Oakland Tribune, the Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, and a spate of smaller publications.

There's really no explanation for pushing news or opinion content being a pay wall other then a strong impulse for self-destruction. Maybe it's time for a suicide hotline for media companies, 1-800-bad-idea.