It's not official until midnight, but Happy New Year from JSM ...

... and let's hope it's a better year economically for the print sports media. 2009 saw several established newspapers go under, taking their sports sections with them. The Washington Times hasn't gone quite that far, but announced this week that it is cutting its work force 40%, dropping its Sunday edition, and completely eliminating its sports section. (Interesting that on the same day the Times announced the moves one of its sports columnists wrote about predictions for the coming decade in sports business).

Obviously, this dead (dying?) horse doesn't need to be beaten further with over-analysis. Once (if?) the economy as a whole starts improving the trend of media liquidations should slow down, but it won't end completely. The industry is still struggling with new technologies, changing audiences and evolving business models. New strategies are slowly emerging, from the obvious to the unorthodox. It's an understatement to say that 2010 will be a fascinating year to see how these issues play out in the sports media.