For today’s snapshot of the U.S. newspaper economy, we offer Philadelphia—where one paper stopped publication yesterday and the company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year says it will start charging for online access. The Bulletin actually folded for the second time; publisher Thomas G. Rice bought the name of the long-defunct, once highly popular paper back in 2004, producing a daily with a conservative voice that gained an audience but little advertising. Monday afternoon, he told the staff he’d run out of money; the Inquirer reports they had been paid on time for months.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia Media Holdings, which stepped in to save the Inquirer and Daily News in 2006 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy three months ago, is looking in every direction to make money. CEO Brian Tierney has been taking part in industry discussions about how to charge for content and told the local Fox affiliate he expects to start doing just that by the end of the year. He told Fox 29: “I think by the end of this year we’ll starting doing what a lot of other newspapers are looking at doing and charging something for it. We can’t spend $53 million on newsroom costs and give it away on the back door in terms of things. There will be a small charge for that.” (No details about the price. I wouldn’t be surprised to see PMH take part in the Journalism Online marketplace.)

Tierney told the station 1.6 million people buy the Inky’s Sunday edition and 1 million read it online, offering it as evidence that going online only wouldn’t make sense. But he also said the paper made $36 million this year, calling it “one of the most profitable” papers in the country. Unfortunately, there’s the pesky issue of that $300 million in debt from buying the former Knight Ridder papers.

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