News aggregation doesn’t happen just on the Web. Just look at the print edition of The Denver Post.

There’s an old saying in the newspaper business that readers don’t notice or remember bylines – the “By Jane Doe” credits that top most articles in the paper. But you still may have noticed over the last couple of years that The Post regularly publishes articles credited to other Colorado newspapers.

It makes some sense. The long decline of the big-city newspaper business means there are fewer pages to fill. But it’s also meant there are fewer staff writers to fill them, so stories from other papers come in handy. And since The Post rarely staffs stories outside the metro area any more, how else are you going to find out what’s happening elsewhere?

Still, the Denver & The West section of last Sunday’s Post went to extremes. The (formerly) fat Sunday edition traditionally is a newspaper’s showpiece – packed with the staff’s most important and interesting stuff.

Not so much on Aug. 7. D&TW contained four stories written by Post staff – and eight from other papers – Aurora Sentinel, Boulder Daily Camera (two), Colorado Springs Gazette (two), Cortez Journal, Longmont Times-Call and Loveland Reporter-Herald. (Some of the papers share common, penny-pinching ownership with The Post.)

The Post’s staff is hard-pressed. Recent buyouts and layoffs reportedly have left only about 100 folks in the newsroom, far below the levels of past, happier decades. Now there’s a shadow staff – writers from other papers.

(For the latest elegy on the newspaper business, check this 20-minute video from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He’s alarmist and hilarious at the same time.)