Gloom. Doom. Proclamations of death.

News about the newspaper industry is bleak of late, to say the least, but, generally, journalists seem to be talking only amongst themselves and audience ennui is increasing at a blitzing pace - fewer than half of respondents in a recent poll felt losing the local newspaper would hurt civic life; fewer still said they would miss the paper at all.

"Newspapers in general don't do a good job of touting what they are good at, which is in-depth, investigative coverage of the news," said Scott Maier, an associate professor of journalism at University of Oregon. "But then there's also some question of whether or not they're performing that service."

Seventy-one percent of respondents to a survey conducted by the Associated Press Managing Editors said industrywide cutbacks have "somewhat affected" or "greatly affected" the quality of their newspapers' coverage. Just 20 percent said staff reductions had little or no effect.

For the surviving inhabitants of the Fourth Estate, things have been no less grim. One in four journalists working in 2001 is now out of a job. For those remaining, pay cuts (Oregonian and Willamette Week) and mandatory furloughs (Statesman Journal and Oregonian) are the order of the day.

While several newspapers have collapsed under the pressure or been driven to bankruptcy, John Russial, another University of Oregon journalism professor, said papers that have fallen by the wayside have by-and-large been weaker papers in multi-newspaper markets.

"Losing the struggling paper does reduce the number of independent voices; losing the only paper will have a significant impact on public information, on citizen knowledge, on public accountability, ultimately on the democratic process. Some people disagree with this - they feel the gap will be filled by independent journalists, bloggers and the like," Russial said. "I don't see how it can. In any community, the only news organization with the numbers to actually cover news comprehensively has been the newspaper."

Maier, who recently completed a study comparing content of major news aggregators (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to traditional news sites, said there is a substantial difference in content. The study results offered more detail as to what is different between Internet news and traditional news outlets.

"The aggregators lean more toward international news while the traditional news sites have much more local education, religion and community stories; typically the stories are twice as long, too," Maier said.

Some of the recent newspaper deaths can be attributed to massive debts accumulated over the course of many years and buyouts of smaller papers.

For years daily newspapers operated with staggering profits, but the double-whammy of a rapidly changing media landscape and the economic recession drove ad revenue and profits down in 2008, by 23 percent from 2006 figures.

The revenue decline drove down stock prices of publicly traded newspapers by 83 percent in 2008. Gannett Co., parent of Salem's own Statesman Journal, as well as the Silverton Appeal-Tribune and Stayton Mail, is down more than 87 percent from a year ago.

"These days, some of the largest media corporations are really struggling under high debt burdens from sales," said Russial.

In February, Moody's Investors Service said that Gannett's ability to reduce its debt in traditional ways was diminishing because debt capital structure was due to mature by April 2012. The news prompted the corporation to exchange some its debt for notes due at a later date, but carrying a higher interest rate.

Statesman readership has slipped by 9 percent - 46,977 to 42,622 - during the week and 7 percent - 52,238 to 49,355 - on Sundays, according to the most recent numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

But declining readership is hardly limited to the Statesman. The Oregonian's daily Monday-Friday circulation fell 4 percent, and Sunday circulation fell 3.7 percent.

Earlier this year, the editor and publisher of the Eugene Register-Guard, Tony Baker III, told a Eugene City Club audience that the paper had given up on attracting readers in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic.

“We’re not going to chase them,” Baker said. “It’s folly.”

While the Register-Guard may have given up the chase, other newspapers have not. Response to change in readership manifests itself in a number of ways, from fewer pages - and thus fewer articles - to physically smaller dimensions, ads placed mid-page and off-kilter, and ads on the once-sacred front page. Then there's the endless push toward the online realm.

"There is a lot more activity in the newspapers' online operations, but innovation is hampered by lack of staffing and possibly vision," said Russial. "Few news organizations have money to spend on online innovation unless it comes at the expense of traditional print staffing, and that is problematic because print pays the bills. Online doesn't come close to supporting a news organization."

It's still too early to tell whether video and multimedia presentations will be enough to draw enough page views to support the cost involved in producing them, Russial added.

"We have yet to realize significant increases in Internet revenue, although that effort continues. I wouldn’t say we’ve missed the mark, but we have struggled with the “split business personality” that arises in this kind of economy and this kind of industry transformation," said Jeb Blandine, president and publisher of the Yamhill Valley News-Register. "It’s hard to implement plans demanded by responsible pessimism, while trying to encourage people with responsible optimism."

In 2008, Yamhill Valley News-Register officials made aggressive moves to cut costs to combat revenue reductions and cost increases. The company reduced staff through attrition and layoffs, reduced the physical size of the newspaper by four inches, and cut frequency of publication from three days per week to two.

Bright spots are hard to find in such a stream of negativity, but it's a matter of looking in the right place, said Maier.

"Smaller community papers seem to be weathering the times better. They continue to do what they've always done - focus on the hyperlocal news. And they've been insulated from the major declines in revenue because they are less dependent on car dealerships and big box retailers for their income," he said.

Keeping a tight eye on expenses allowed the Keizertimes to finish in the black in 2008, said Lyndon Zaitz, publisher.

"Advertisers rarely have to lift a finger — we make it easy for businesses to advertise in the paper. For readers, we listen to what the community is saying; if they want to see a particular addition to the paper we endeavor to give them what they want," Zaitz said.

While the Keizer paper did cut back on some special edition publications in response to the economic belt-tightening, Zaitz remained optimistic about the current industry climate.

"We will be challenged with increased expenses and less advertising dollars to go around, but we're confident in the community and our ability to report on it," he said.

Like the Keizer paper, Salem Monthly has seen its business tick up slightly despite the recession. In addition to launching four new publications in the last three months (Mid-Valley EAT, Mid-Valley PLAY, Mid-Valley Vine and Mid-Valley WELLNESS), the company saw record sales for its May issue and started the following month with more advertisers under contract than it had in its five-year history.

At the News-Register, Bladine said he's cautiously optimistic about the summer months.

"Retail advertising will be slow to rebound. Oregon’s high unemployment and construction/housing shutdown will define the remainder of 2009 and perhaps beyond. As with many companies, banking credit is a challenge," he said. "Still, community newspapers, if not thriving, are surviving across the country. Like so many others, our newspaper has a strong and loyal constituency that sees value in what we bring to the community, and we appreciate that support."

Given the mixed results throughout the newspaper industry, it's too early to proclaim the death of newspapers, Russial said.

"The drumbeat has gotten so loud that some readers seem to think that there is no newspaper industry left or that its days are numbered," he said. "But it also is true that newspapers are still publishing, tens of thousands of staff members continue to work in newsrooms, and many papers remain profitable, though nowhere near as profitable as they have been."