Doc Searls has more information about that newspaper story, along with some constructive advice for the paper. The advice is useful for any newspaper:

Again, my purpose here isn't to play gotcha with the News-Press. The paper needs constructive help, not rebukes. It's a good paper. I read it every day. I'd like us to help make it better. So here are three suggestions for the paper: 1) Reach out to, and take advantage of, local bloggers, friendly and otherwise; 2) Encourage blogging by your own staff (no need to host, as the Scripps papers do - too complicated, and not necessary); and 3) Open those archives - not just to subscribers (registered or otherwise), but to Google and other search engines. Search engines are the reference sections of the world's new library. Excluding your work from that library reduces the paper's authority. For more and more of us, if you're not on the Web, it's like you don't exist.

Just to be clear, that added emphasis is mine. I know why papers hide their archives - they want revenue opportunities for that data. The trouble is, by hiding them they bury them down the memory hole.