A few days ago I learned from The Economist that John Micklethwait is standing down as the editor. He has been in the post since 2006, well into my closeness with the newspaper. And today I learned from the Financial Times that the circulation of The Economist has fallen for the first time in fifteen years, which coincides pretty well with my own infatuation. These two pieces of news are closely related, no doubt. How about the fall in circulation, though? Does it have anything to do with my own decision to abandon the mighty newspaper? I started reading it in earnest and sending regular letters to the editor in 1995 and I stopped doing so in 2011. But I abandoned The Economist not because of anything having to do with the newspaper itself; rather, I abandoned it because I gave up on the news. If I still continue to browse through online newspapers and write occasional comments on what I read, this I see as nothing but a residual weakness of mine. I will abandon all newspapers soon enough, I promise. The World Wide Web provides me with the essential news without any hoopla. If I need a bit more detail on anything in particular, I can always search for companies such as Reuters and British Broadcasting Corporation, which focus on the nuts and bolts and skip all the crap. Chances are that many clever people around the globe are doing the same in ever-larger numbers. Whence the fall in circulation of The Economist, I reckon. And whence the circulation blues of many other newspapers or renown. If I am ahead of my times, it is only by a few years at most.