Here's a way out of the newspaper slump...throw a political convention! The local papers both here in Denver and in St. Paul, MN are getting a temporary reprieve from the country-wide ad slump due to "lavish" coverage a la the Olympics. According to the WSJ:

The Denver Post is printing an extra 24- to 36-page section every day this week devoted to coverage of political speeches, protests and traffic troubles tied to the Democratic National Convention.

The Pioneer Press in St. Paul, which sent just a handful of reporters to the conventions four years ago, is devoting more than 30 staffers to the Republican National Convention, which opens there on Sept. 1.