I think TechDirt is exactly right about this - going over a lawsuit filed by Gatehouse Media against the NY Times, they point out the problem. What was the suit about? Supposed copyright violations - The Times was copying headlines and ledes with links back to the source. Gatehouse claimed that this was stealing readers, but TechDirt says that's bogus:

What more could you have done? You could have competed more effectively. Owens complains about "substitute home pages," where the Boston.com was trying to take away GateHouse's readers. There's a pretty straightforward response to that: if that's all it takes to take away your community, you've failed your community.

That's exactly right, and it's not limited to newspapers. If any media source starts to fail its community, that community will go elsewhere. Some people will - like too many media managers - point the finger of blame elsewhere, but they really need to look in the mirror. If you are losing readers, it's not because someone else is stealing them - it's because you aren't providing any reason for them to come to you.

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