Public opinion polls show distrust of politics and politicians runs deep this election year. Especially in congressional races, as witnessed by the special and primary elections held thus far.

People believe that most politicians are in the game for themselves, that the special interests control the system and that those in power don't really care about average citizens.

There's evidence of this disaffection across the country despite the clamorous efforts of old and new ideological groups. Fewer and fewer people are voting even though it is easier and easier to register to vote.

Should newspapers, like Socrates, accept death over exile to an uncertain fate? Drink the hemlock and end this ceaseless torture about our print future?

That’s what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer did recently, shutting down after 146 years of publishing and thus subtracting another title from the vanishing roster of competing dailies in America.

In February, Denver’s Rocky Mountain News closed. In July, the Ann Arbor, Mich., News will call it quits. The Tucson Citizen may follow suit any day now.

Ways to localize special sections or packages on the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. president.

-- Reuse the thumbnail profiles of the previous 43 presidents produced by CNHI last fall.

-- Find people from your community planning to attend the Jan. 20 inauguration in Washington. Write stories about them, and deputize them as citizen journalists. they can email or phone their impressions -- in words, photos and video -- to you from the scene. Get the names from your congressman's office. They issue tickets to the official ceremony, parade and balls.

A Washington, D. C.-based communications company, The Bivings Group, annually studies how the largest American newspapers are coping with the Internet as a news source.

There are lessons for all of CNHI markets in this year's survey. Especially if you are near a big paper that is trying to reach out to your readers.

Here's a summary of the key findings:

-- More than twice as many big newspapers in 2008 moved to user-generated content. The study found 58 percent allow for user generated photos, 18 percent accepted video and 15 percent articles.

CNN's discussion with disgruntled AP newspaper editors has dampened the cable network's interest in becoming a lower-cost alternative general news service.

CNN made it clear it has no intention of competing toe-to-toe with AP in the 50 states or around the world.

"They're only talking about having a comparative handful of national, international and feature stories a day," Roger Plothow, editor and publisher of The Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho, told Editor & Publisher after the meeting.