Well, they certainly got the “March comes in like a lion” part right.

Consider what happened during the first few weeks of last month.

One press vendor finds out it may again be put under a government microscope for actions that occurred 10 years ago.

A major newspaper group disappears, in the process leaving in the lurch such storied flags as The Philadelphia Inquirer and San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News.

The majority of another vendor is sold by its parent company to a private equity firm that intends to spin off the supplier as an independent company in three or four years’ time.

The consequences of what ultimately may lie ahead for TKS, the 12 papers McClatchy Co. said it didn’t want in its $4.5 billion purchase of Knight Ridder Inc. and MAN Roland, respectively, are too early to predict, but if this much upheaval can occur in less than three weeks, what’s the rest of 2006 going to bring to the newspaper industry?

In each of these cases, the companies are paying for the sins of the past.  

TKS is under regulatory scrutiny for selling presses at below-market rates to The Dallas Morning News a decade ago. Knight Ridder fell into trouble because its largest shareholder was dissatisfied with the group’s recent double-digit margin financial performance. And MAN Roland? Although the vendor said last year yielded record revenues and orders, its parent company is under pressure to stick to its core businesses and reduce its investment in web and offset printing.

TKS, MAN Roland and the Orphan 12 are hardly alone. The last 12 months have seen changes envelope such vendors as Flint Ink, US Ink, GMA Inc. and Newstec, among others, as they wrestle with consolidation and changes in the executive suite.

And we certainly don’t have to dredge up the challenges newspapers are facing. If they’re not cutting stock and TV pages, they’re trimming somewhere else.

Of course, every supplier and every newspaper has to accommodate the market’s ever-changing demands in order to survive.

It’s never easy; and as our Page One story on the price squeeze now constricting certain segments of the marketplace indicates, it doesn’t appear that it will get any easier any time soon.

Will the temblors rocking the industry today make for stronger and more vibrant suppliers? Or are the changes we’re seeing now reflective of an industry that’s in the early stages of a terminal decline?

My crystal ball, unfortunately, is not that clairvoyant.