From the Chicago Tribune:

Jay Mariotti, the opinionated and polarizing sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, has resigned after 17 years with the paper, he told the Tribune on Tuesday night.

Just back from Beijing, where he covered the Olympics, Mariotti said in a phone interview that he decided to quit after it became clear while in China that sports journalism had become "entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there." He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were "there writing for Web sites."

Mariotti, whose public battles with fellow staffers, team owners, managers, coaches and rival columnists are legendary, didn't disclose any specific plans except to say he will continue doing his regular stint on ESPN's "Around the Horn."

He said he "is talking with a lot of Web sites" and added that the future of his business "sadly is not in newspapers."

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Mariotti is one of my favorite columnist in the country and he will land on his feet. The newspaper industry though is taking a huge hit and those organizations not smart enough to capitalize on new media opportunities are going to continue to see a decline in their content and business as a whole.

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