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God knows what you mean by kick-ass journalism because that's not what newspaper web sites are all about.
But seeing as how you're still back there with moveable type, let me break it down for you - psychologically.
People turn to newspaper web sites for the same reason they watch news on television.
Basically, what they're looking for is a "hot" emotional experience rather than "cold" facts.
In another words, the "product" new media consumer is looking for is all about feelings - rather than facts.
Sites like Googal and/or Wikopedia will continue to a better job of producing instant facts. (Did you know Wickopedia postings for Sean Taylor's death kept pace with the print media.)
But as Internet Tech continues to improve, newspaper web pages will eventualy reach a point through sound and video (and eventually, opinion) where the consumer will be rewarded by (and increasing addicted to) a wide range of emotional "highs".
In short, print is non-active and linear - "cold" as McLuhan put it.
While the Internet, like TV, is totally experiential - or "hot."
So forget the latest Wall Street numbers for the dying business of print journalism.
Because once Web pages like the Sentinel's reach their full Tech Maturity, the profit margins will be better than those of a crack dealer from tomorrrow's Techno consumers looking for an emotional high*.
(*Think the best of the latest High Tech video games systems versus chess.)
But then, being a print dino with a linear brain, you probably never read McLuhan.
Still, although written by Cold News Neanderthal, your Blog is filled with Bitter Bile and Nasty Anger - which makes it Techno Consumer Hot. (Now all you need are video posts showing you screaming your rants in front of the Sun-Sentinel, or the like -- which what real Kick Ass is all about!)

First off - and I mean this in a genuinely curious way, not a Hey, who's an asshole? way - I'd be curious to see what a similar graph for New Times looks like.
Yeah, these numbers never look good. But as the first poster notes, we're also just getting up with the internet. It's already been proven what a huge advantage big newspapers have in a market as insanely fragmented as the internet. Figuring out exactly where the money's going to be made has taken a bit longer, but they're coming around. Yep, the internet will save us all. That's what I'm telling myself as I fall asleep tonight.

By kick-ass journalism, I mean doing the traditional stuff -- exposing corruption, telling great stories, basically doing stuff that's impossible for people NOT to look at.

And that, I would think, will produce some emotional highs unto itself. Here's the deal: People will always want news and newspapers will always be producing it. Comparing it to Google or Yahoo or Wikipedia or Facebook or anything else misses the point. Newspapers produce the raw news content for the Web; search engines and other sites get it out there.

I get your point about the bells and whistles and agree it's important to present the news in stimulating ways on the Web. But it's all a bunch of nothing without original reporting and news.

PULP -
You still don't get it, print dino that you are.
Since the advent of television and the dumbing down of our public school system, each new generation has become less and less intellectually curious about the challanging aspects of government, the economy, corporate ethics, etc.
In other words, as information consumers, what the average american increasingly wants and will pay for are "kicks" as opposed to the existential loneliness and anxiety that comes from asking "why?"

PULP -
You still don't get it, print dino that you are.
Since the advent of television and the dumbing down of our public school system, each new generation has become less and less intellectually curious about the challanging aspects of government, the economy, corporate ethics, etc.
In other words, as information consumers, what the average american increasingly wants and will pay for are "kicks" as opposed to the existential loneliness and anxiety that comes from asking "why?"

Newspapers are no different from other forms of technology that are now obsolete. Newspapers serve one function: they deliver information to the public in an efficient manner and at a reasonable price. To the extent they fail to do that (and the market is the brutal determinant of this) they will go out of business. Here is sort of a historical context or evolution of the news business:
1. Penny Papers (18th century)
2. The big metropolitan dailies and evening papers (late 19th century to 1950's)
3. Radio
4. TV
5. Internet
The latter three have steadily eroded the power of print journalism. There is nothing wrong with that; it is called change and happens to every industry that seeks to capitalize on consumer desires to make money. Does anyone lament the disappearance of the 33lp, the 8 track, or the cassette tape? I doubt it. I am sure at the turn of the century, many people were disgusted by the trend of killing horses who were being discarded for something called the automobile.