Si Newhouse's Star-Ledger looked like it was going the way of the New York Sun a couple weeks ago: with no money, tons of debt, and a union strike keeping the papers from being delivered, the obit for the publication was being written for January at the latest.

But now with the strike coming to a close and a buyout settlement being reached, the Star-Ledger might actually be salvageable, provided the staff cuts reduce the workforce from 1,000 to under 800. Sure it sucks to be those excess of 200 people who accepted the buyout requirements but won't be getting it (the paper overshot their buyout ability, now some of those that accepted the deal are going to be straight-up layoffs). But hey, who really wants to work for a paper that is going to bleed out $40 million this year alone?

Between all the bad news for print journalism, one little paper might have weathered out the storm, at least for now. Newark's Star-Ledger looked like it was heading for a financial meltdown: it's been hemorrhaging anywhere from $30-40 million annually without a buyer in sight, plus they had a pesky union problem with their truck drivers that wouldn't deliver their papers. People were taking bets on whether the Star would even last till January.

So even though there are still no buyers, and the paper is still bleeding money like a pre-op House patient with lupus (they will never figure it out in time!), the Star-Ledger, Newark's most widely distributed paper, is "close" to coming to a deal with the union that would allow Si Newhouse to continue to own New Jersey with an iron fist, at least until after January. Hurrahs all around?

The New York Times supports Barack Obama. The NY Post supports McCain. That these nationally recognized papers are invested in national politics is crucial to any election, since this is where a majority of Americans get their news (besides The Daily Show, natch) so the bias of the paper can (theoretically) sway a large constituency. Or so the thinking goes.

Not so much for the Huntsville Times, located in Alabama, which therefore elected not to support either candidate in 2008 because no one cares about them, anyway.

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While the class action lawsuit against billionaire and LA Times owner Sam Zell rages on, the staffers who decided to slap their bylines on the court docs should just thank their lucky stars that they have an employer left to rage against. Even if he is a scam artist that is bilking the company for millions in a (admittedly genius) tax exploitation manoeuvre, at least he offered a corporate bailout when no one else was biting. Yes, this is a case of "best of the worst," but while Zell may be fleecing the Tribune Co., he's still signing paychecks. Some newspaper companies aren't that lucky.

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