NEWSPAPER AD REVENUE CONTINUES TO PLUMMET:

Revenue from advertising was in striking decline last month, compared with February a year ago, and were generally weaker than analysts had expected.

And while there was one piece of good news for the industry — ad spending on newspaper Web sites rose — many industry watchers were wondering whether the February declines were part of a short-term slump or whether they signal a deepening systemic problem.

Revealingly, lots of readers have emailed this story to me with various gleeful comments. I don’t share their glee. I want newspapers to get better, not go broke. However, it says something bad about the politicization of news reporting that so many potential readers are canceling subscriptions and even taking glee in bad financial news for newspapers.