I think this ignores the fact that the reason some people (like me) buys/subscribes to a paper is because it's... printed on paper. I can get all of the information with my computer or my iPhone, but I enjoy the interaction with actual paper. I wouldn't want to read it on a Kindle.
For the record, I'd be willing to pay substantially more than I currently am for that privilege, but the newspapers don't seem willing to significantly raise their prices.
The advantage of the newspaper at work is that we pass it around the break room all day. It gets annotated with interesting notes and drawings by everyone. That one single newspaper gets read by perhaps 50 people.
Of course, the advantage of HN is that articles get annotated with interesting notes by people I've never seen -- people who don't all work at the same company. And I don't have to commute to an office with a break room in order to read them.
For the record, I'd be willing to pay substantially more than I currently am for that privilege, but the newspapers don't seem willing to significantly raise their prices.