As a native of the Philadelphia area (see: not actually from within the city), I grew up with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Every day, I found it sitting on the kitchen table, the latest Phillies news waiting to be read.

So the last few hours have been quite sad for this Inq junkie. That which all readers knew, but denied anyway, has been verified: The Inquirer is no Highlander.

Because of advertising struggles (like those of every other paper in the nation), the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A statement from the publisher said the newspapers will continue operations as usual, but the damage to morale was done.

It started a few years ago, really. The Inq began using more wire reports for stories outside the tri-state area. In-depth pieces, a staple of reporting, were the next victim as the paper shrank each year.

Readers could have pretended that things weren't that bad. But the bankruptcy filing has made it clear that Philadelphia is as much at risk of losing its newspapers as any other city.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after a bankruptcy filing from the Journal-Register Company, which owns 179 newspapers (including my own county paper, The Times Herald). The company has garnered almost $700 million in debt. It, too, intends to survive.

But it's a gloomy time for newspapers, and Philadelphia is in no way alone.

The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy last month, and has been planning some drastic changes to its publication. McClatchy, which owns the Centre Daily Times, has also been struggling financially.

It's the end of an era for newspaper journalism; there's no doubt about that. This does not mean the end of newspapers, however. I'm a firm believer that the value of journalism is too much for the public to abandon. There is also a great future ahead in terms of multimedia, a field we at The Collegian are fiercely pursuing.

There's a race taking place across the nation, and every newspaper is running. The finish line: finding a new business model for the journalism industry. It's a unique race in that no one cares about winning; everyone just wants anyone to finish. Plenty of ideas have come and gone; none has stood the test of time and a bad economy.

Now the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News have taken their spots in the race. It will be interesting to see what adjustments are made by these two papers in the coming months. As a journalist and a reader, I just hope adjustments are made soon.

There's bound to be a lot of Phillies coverage this summer.