Washingtonpost.com reports on the precipitous decline in viewership of late-night newscasts in its region: more than 10% on average compared to last year. Such dropoffs are unheard of in the relatively stable media world. The culprit is apparently declines in the quality of prime-time network programming, which typically swings viewers into the late news. As networks have cut budgets in response to falling viewership, a domino effect has taken hold and now the local affiliates are hurting.

Is this the beginning of the end of television news? The average age of an evening news viewer is now 60. Late-night has been the one salvation of the broadcast business, but even that may fall by the wayside. News has always been a low-margin business for TV stations. In the future, will they even bother to offer news any more?