Back in the heady days of 2005, before Great Recessions and the Really Great Implosion of Print Media were well under way, New York Press writer Matt Taibbi published a piece titled “The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope.” It prompted then-Congressman Anthony Weiner to tell people to throw out the paper. It probably got the scrappy alternative newsweekly more national press than it ever expected—but it also certainly began the steady descent in advertising dollars that is the lifeblood for a free weekly. READ MORE