The Examiner newspaper said goodbye to Baltimore this weekend with its final edition. Ad revenue wasn’t enough to keep the free paper in circulation. At the Baltimore sun, circulation is down and more than 200 jobs have been cut in the last 18 months. Reports indicate that on a national basis, overall newspaper based readership is down about 3% from last year.

The interesting side to all of this and the story you aren’t hearing much about is that online news sites are dramatically growing in readership. According to a recent Nielsen online survey, online readership on the top 10 news www sites is up an average of 16% with 40 million unique visitors in December 2008. This is up from 34 million in December of 2007. Total viewers peaked at 252 million in the same period, compared to 199 million in December 2007.

Our desire to be informed appears to be growing. From being connected via PDA, cell, internet to print – we want to be up to date. What is changing is how we get our news. Personally, I get a ton of news on my phone and via email alerts. The convenience of online is hard to beat. Online news is real time and can be targeted to a specific person via personalized alerts. Another major factor is that internet news is free.

What does this mean to newspapers? The dominant trend is get news online, so newspapers need to follow that trend and continue to shift more resources to their online presence. How to shift the business model is going to be a challenge. It is difficult to name more than a few online news outlets that have “figured it out”. Most appear to have a loyal following for specific content either at the national (Wall Street Journal) or the local news level.

There has been some discussion regarding the charging for access to news content or charging micropayments. Micropayments would involve charging by the story in a manner similar to the iTunes method of charging by the song. Either business model will be difficult to make profitable as most news stories are carried by multiple outlets and if one continues to offer free news, it will impossible for the other news agencies to charge for the same story.

The green movement is also making the use of paper frowned upon when another means of delivery is possible.

All of these signals are pointing to the need for news organizations to move to online delivery and to determine a valuable niche that can generate profits. The most successful organizations are going to figure it out soon and capture this trend to their advantage.

If your child has a cell phone, then stopping them from going over their minutes might not be your biggest problem. There is a growing trend called Sexting and you need to know about it.

Sexting is the process of sending text messages with explicit photos and then carrying on a texting conversation regarding activities related to the picture. Just use your imagination. Basically a virtual relationship based on photos and texting that can lead to other “activities”. Why is it occurring? 3 megapixel mobile phone cameras and texting enable this behavior.

20% of teenagers have sent or posted pictures of themselves without clothes or minimal clothing according to a recent survey by the Teenage Research Unlimited. A survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com states that 22% of girls and 18% of boys have electronically sent or posted revealing pics of themselves.

Married adults are also doing this type of texting. This behavior stems from being able to “virtually fool around” without the consequences of an actual affair. Single adults are participating because they believe it is fun and exciting. Many of the stories that I read cite people doing this type of texting while in a bar on a Friday night – sort of a two for one special. Others are using this to “hook up” later.

The ramifications are far reaching and lasting. Once a picture is out, it is out. Gone forever. It will be passed around a school or the internet or an office. For parents with teenagers, consider that college administrators might find it for example and this will raise doubts about admission. Or for teenagers, consider what your old boyfriend or girlfriend might do with those pics if your relationship ends on bad terms. Interestingly enough, some 73% of the teenagers said that they know that these pics could have negative consequences…..but, they did it anyway. One article cites that teenager’s brains are fully developed and they can’t make decisions regarding risk until they are much older.

The big gotcha – if you are an adult and receive a pic from someone that is underage, you are now guilty of possessing child porn and may face felony charges if caught. Think about if you forward this to a friend? Then you are guilty of distributing.

What should parents do? Many parents are taking time to review cell phone contents. Sit down and warn your children about what to think about and avoid. Distributing images such as these can have long term consequences. This may be tough, but consider what could happen if you don’t warn your child to stay away from this really bad idea.