Over the past couple of years, as the U.S. newspaper industry has watched advertising rates and subscription rates dwindle, there have been a number of predictions that a "major" newspaper would eventually cease print publication and move exclusively to the Web. Depending on your definition of the term "major newspaper," there have been several over the past six months, including the Cincinnati Post. And now we have another: the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin said Saturday that it was closing its doors as a print publication and will be publishing only on the Internet. The paper, which had a peak circulation of more than 40,000 in the 1960s, now has fewer than 20,000 readers.

The Times, which has been publishing daily for 90 years, has apparently been losing ground steadily over the past decade or so to its local competitor, The Wisconsin State Journal -- in part because the State Journal is a morning newspaper and the Capital Times is published in the afternoon. Before the Internet came along (or television news, for that matter), the afternoon newspaper was the most current news available, and afternoon publishing was seen as a better alternative to morning newspapers. As the Web and television have siphoned off a lot of the urgent news of the day, however, afternoon papers have ceased to be as compelling.

About a third of the 60-person staff at the Capital Times have lost their jobs, with some new hires in the Web publishing area. In addition to creating content for a Madison website called Madison.com (which the State Journal also contributes to, although the two papers are editorially independent), the staff of the Capital Times will produce a local news insert that will be printed as part of the State Journal. Other daily papers that have closed over the past year include the Albuquerque Tribune, another afternoon newspaper. New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen has posted some thoughts about the closure on his blog at PressThink and there are more details here.