The New York Times Company has seen better days. Just a few weeks after the New York Times Company announced its chief executive officer Janet Robinson would be leaving at the end of the year, the company has announced that it will be selling 16 regional newspapers in the Southeast and California. The papers will be sold for $143 million to Halifax Media Holdings.

The Times is pawning the papers because of weak local retail and national advertising, something that has plagued newspapers around the nation. The sale also indicates that the Times is betting its future the company's staple newspaper, the New York Times.

The New York Times isn't alone in its battle to preserve a deteriorating industry. Earlier this month, Lee Enterprises, one of the largest newspaper chains in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy. The Iowa-based company was forced to file for bankruptcy in order to refinance its $1 billion of debt. Lee Enterprises faced similar problems that the New York Times Company is facing--mainly a lack of advertising revenue.

Lee Enterprises owns several regional papers throughout the Midwest, West and a few in the East. Lee Enterprises' newspapers with the largest circulations include Arizona Daily Star, St. Louis Post Dispatch and Wisconsin State Journal.

One of the most high-profile cases of newspaper decline is with the Chicago-based Tribune Company. The Tribune Company declared bankruptcy in 2008 and for three years, the company has been involved in a legal scrum. Earlier this year, the crooked twist in the saga revealed that Sam Zell, the billionaire known as the grave dancer who bought the Tribune Company in 2007, may receive money for the $225 million security he invested in the Tribune Company. Of course, Zell is widely criticized for driving the Tribune Company into the ground within the first year of owning it, leaving the company with $13 billion in debt.

The Tribune Company owns some of the largest papers in America including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun. Whether Zell will receive any money in the bankruptcy battle for his $225 million note remains to be seen.

The New York Times