On this morning's "Squawk Box" on CNBC Sam Zell had this to say about the state of denial the newspaper industry has been living in up until now. And talk about a rude awakening.

I think that because newspapers have historically been monopolies, I think they've been insulated from reality. I, you know, am in the position where I'm going to have to, quote-unquote, deliver reality. I think we can have terrific newspapers, but I think the newspapers have to respond to their customers. In many cases a lot of the things we're doing right now were all identified in focus groups over the last eight years. And the focus groups were made, were taken, and nobody paid attention to them.