Media World: Sanford scandal boosts business -- but the paper cuts staff

South Carolina's biggest paper, The State, owes beleaguered Governor Mark Sanford a big "thank you." Traffic to its Web site is surging. Page views recently soared by 447 percent year-over-year while unique visits skyrocketed by 1,080 percent over the same period in 2008, according to Gary Ward, online editor for The State. Lett estimates that The State has "increased its single-copy draw has increased by 40 percent."

But a juicy story can't protect the newspaper from the industry's harsh economic realities including employee layoffs.