Since 1940, the United States has lost 441 daily newspapers. Print media across the country has been going under the knife both figuratively and literally. Dailies are cutting jobs in mass layoffs, including giants such as USA Today, who cut approximately 45 newsroom jobs, or 9 percent of its roughly 500 employees last November. This month, the New York Times reported that, papers have cut costs by shedding thousands of workers, eliminating some distribution routes and printing fewer, smaller pages, but profit margins continue to shrink. Will this flailing medium survive the thrashing tide or drown in a page of history?

According to Marketing Sherpa, 38 percent of marketers expect to increase online ad spending, a number only slightly higher than the 36 percent who expect to decrease traditional media outlay. Generally, the Internet can be more cost effective, more targeted, and easier to track than traditional media.

Furthermore, if we heed claims digital is usurping print media, then the stage is definitely set for change. Jefferey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California at Annenberg, states the following: "when an offline reader of a paper dies, he or she is not being replaced by a new reader."

Have consumers grown tired of thumbing through ink-stained pages and opted to click for information instead? Evidently, the U.S. market has shifted from print to digital because the latter is scalable, manageable, measurable, and interactive. Even print media's strongest endorser, the Associated Press (AP), is reportedly chasing after a larger piece of the digital pie. "AP is devoting more of its resources to producing content for other news outlets [including] the very Web portals that pose the greatest competition for newspapers, such as Yahoo and Google now among the AP's biggest customers." (Wall Street Journal, June 2008)

Another trend driving this move is the relocation of classified ads from print to digital. Print advertising is more expensive than digital advertising, so offline mediums tread perilous waters. In 2000, newspapers lost 40 percent of their ad revenue to the Internet, which can organize information more efficiently, giving consumers a more user-friendly experience. Online, advertisers have more choices, so even a newspaper's Web site competes for a mere fraction of revenue.

Real estate ad revenue has also incurred tremendous loses, particularly in states like Florida and California, where the housing markets crashed severely. The McClathy Company, owner of the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, the Sacramento Bee and others, confirmed that its ad revenue was down 15.4 percent through the first five months of this year. Moreover, the company will cut about 1,400 jobs, leaving it with 21 percent fewer employees than it had a year and a half ago.

Dwindling newsrooms and the battle against digital rages on throughout the nation: The Hearst Corportation's San Francisco Chronicle is reportedly losing $1 million a week, and even the well-established Wall Street Journal is introducing a glossy magazine inside its newspaper pages to fight audience fragmentation.

Nevertheless, advocates of the newsroom point out they still have the public's trust and hold the powerful lure of investigative journalism in their arsenal. Craig Moon, president and publisher of USA Today since 2003, dispels the notion of a losing battle, "if we're smart enough to show [potential clients] how we fit into [the] puzzle, regardless of whether it's print or digital or mobile we ought to be the recipient of advertising exposure." USA Today never had classified ads and never flinched when classifieds went digital.

Many view these blows to this medium as circumstantial setbacks inherent to the market's natural ebb and flow. "Analysis think the industry will return to [its normal] growth rate when the economy picks up again, but for now, it is closer to 15 percent. The Internet still accounts for less than 10 percent of newspaper ad revenue." (New York Times, June 2008)

Ultimately, how will these threats to the medium impact the media landscape? Print must find alternative means of generating revenue and not rely so heavily on classifieds. Moreover, the medium's lifeline lies in establishing stronger digital platforms. Today's consumer seeks an online community experience; they want to generate, share, and control content. If print media embraces an innovative approach, it can turn trials into opportunities to become the stronger contender.