The death of newspapers is not a pretty thing to see.

Daily newspapers in New Jersey stopped covering town council and school board meetings – long a staple of local news – years ago. So, it’s hardly a shock that readership has plummeted.

This may be “old news” – to use a newsroom phrase – but the issue is now being pushed into the state Legislature.

And the impetus is coming from Warren County, one of the smallest counties in the state population wise.

The county just sued, seeking permission to put legal ads online as opposed to publishing them in a printed newspaper.

The move seems driven by both declining newspaper readership and plans of the Star-Ledger, the state’s largest paper, to end its print edition early next year. There’s more. The Ledger’s parent company will also stop printing some of its smaller papers around the state and the Jersey Journal will simply close, leaving Hudson County without a daily newspaper. Guess there’s no political news in Hudson.

Let’s digress.

Legal ads are official notices that mostly local governing bodies have published in newspapers seemingly forever. They include meeting announcements, ordinances, the board of education budget, sheriff’s sales and the like.

The cost to towns is determined by a formula that takes into account circulation and the size of the ad – how much space (column inches) it takes up in the paper. Legal ads are a great deal for newspapers, because they represent revenue that just walks in the door so to speak.

Attempts to end the newspaper monopoly on these ads have popped up over the years – most recently when Chris Christie was governor – but they all fizzled out. This was partly because of strong lobbying from newspapers themselves.

But now any lobbying effort would be coming from a very weak position. The circulation figures – as cited in the Warren County suit – are dreadful. And there is also a blunt question that must be raised:

Given the fact daily papers no longer regularly cover local government, why should local town councils and school boards give them legal ads?

The Legislature can simply change the law and allow legal ads to be placed online – probably on a town or school district website. That likely would make Warren’s suit moot.

Still, give credit to Warren and its attorney, Joseph J. Bell, for raising the matter. The defendants are the Ledger and the Daily Record, both of which circulate in the county.

The suit presents circulation figures for daily newspapers in New Jersey that are mind boggling.

For example, the daily circulation of the printed Daily Record is about 1,400 and the circulation of the Bergen Record, which was once a great newspaper, is listed at about 14,000.

There are many more digital readers, but keep in mind the issue at the moment is running legal ads in printed newspapers. So, traditional circulation data is important.

One of the perhaps unintended consequences of changing how legal ads are published would be the devastating impact any change would have on weekly newspapers, which in most cases. remain committed to covering local news.

One also would be remiss not to touch on how things have gone so downhill for traditional daily newspapers.

Years ago, newspapers were more or less family-owned institutions. Those running the show had a connection to their area and a belief they were providing a public service.

But now, Gannett, which owns the Daily Record and Bergen Record, and similar corporations, care only about the bottom line. So, staff cuts on top of staff cuts don’t leave much left.

We are seeing the result – less coverage, dwindling readership, less visibility and a steady slide to irrelevancy.

Newspaper owners have themselves to blame.