google and The Wire's David Simon on the Newspaper Industry in the Web Age.

'Simon also lambasted the newspaper industry's cry of "it's not our fault". Newspapers had gone from privately-owned family firms to publically-traded stocks, he said, and many of the cuts in the 1990s were against the background of bumper (35 per cent) profits. Families were content with 10 to 15 per cent annual profit.'

Sounds like a case you could make for the wanton pillaging of many companies in many industries since the 80s. The one case where this left-winger will say, public = bad, private = good.