The Seattle Post-Intellegencer is no longer a physical newspaper. It exists only in cyberspace. Sort of like this blog. Hearst is on the verge of doing in other papers in the chain, too.
Papers have been dying for many years. New York City once had 14 major dailies. Not all of these papers were great, or even good, but they provided competition for each other. Every good size city used to have at least two daily newspapers. Two opinion pages. Often two political viewpoints.The fewer newspapers, the fewer viewpoints.
It could be argued that a paper on line can offer viewpoints, too, but it's less likely. On line advertising is yet to prove profitable, so publishers are likely to be beholden to the few advertisers they get. There are plenty of cowardly publishers around anyway. Until and unelss online advertising proves profitable, the limited number of businesses who do advertise will have disproportionate power.