The numbers do not look good for print-based media companies. On June 4, a Moody’s senior analyst in New York, John Puchalla, lambasted the American newspaper industry for its “distorted” cost structures. Similar cost structures operate at newspapers in Australia. In essence, too much of each dollar is spent on printing and distribution, and too little on what sells newspapers—the content. Seventy cents in each dollar of American newspapers’ operating expenses was spent on paper, printing, distribution and corporate functions. Only 14 per cent was spent generating editorial content. The other 16 per cent went on advertising and marketing. The…