Jody Calendar is president of Calendar Communications, Inc. in Tinton Falls, N.J., a writing, editing, and management consulting firm. She is a former deputy executive editor of The Asbury Park Press, Neptune, N.J., and former managing editor of the Record of Bergen County, Hackensack, N.J.

THESE ARE PERILOUS TIMES and no amount of cheerleading will make up for the recent carnage.

It's been a witch's brew of downsizing, sinister financial reports and drowned dreams. Even our most prestigious journalism graduate schools are being financially challenged.

With all the pressure and distraction, however, newsrooms are fighting to find ways to protect the public's right to know.

The saddest news to date is the sale or possible closure of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Despite a valiant attempt to downsize the paper from five to three sections on weekdays, keep high standards and be honest with its readership, the newspaper has been put up for sale because of an "unacceptable level" of losses, said Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers. The P-I lost $14 million last year.

If a new buyer cannot be found, the newspaper may go online only with a reduced staff or be shut down entirely. Still, the newsroom is fighting to stay alive, and its leadership remains committed to its readership and staff.

"The P-I has a long, distinguished past and an outstanding present. I hope it has a future," said David McCumber, managing editor. "I will do all I can in the next few weeks to help entice a buyer, and right now my energies are focused there. If one doesn't step forward, we must be prepared for either a total shutdown or a much-reduced online iteration. We have 150 top-notch journalists here, looking at a job market that is precarious at best. We'll see what develops, but there's not a clear path to continued employment for many people here if no buyer is found."

Just days before the announcement, associate publisher Ken Bunting told The American Editor that the paper was focused on readers and being honest about the downsizing.

"Some newspapers and other businesses utilize clever marketing to try to convince people that less is more. We pointedly avoided that," Bunting said.

Bunting was having shoulder surgery on the day of the announcement and found out about the decision while in the hospital. "Needless to say, the news evokes strong emotions and a range of them. I'm still in a state of shock," Bunting said. "In the uncertain times ahead, I find myself concerned more about staff and readers than myself. Maybe these aren't the most important concerns, but high on my list of regrets is that I wasn't in the building to share the pain of this passage with colleagues, and that a TV station broke the damn story."

In another venture being watched by the entire industry, Detroit Media Partnership is tackling the economic downturn head-on.

Home delivery of MediaNews Group-owned Detroit News and Gannett-owned Detroit Free Press has been cut to three days a week -Thursday, Friday and Sunday - although daily newspapers will be available on newsstands. The papers will also print smaller daily editions, roughly 32 pages, and lead readers to their respective online sites at freep.com and detnews.com.

And for those folks who want to have an ink version in their hands, the electronic sites will be exact replicas of the newsstand versions and can be printed from home computers.

Newsroom jobs will be saved and fuel and labor expenses will be reduced, but still the partnership says it still expects to cut 9 percent of its work force of 2,151 employees.

"The staff was initially shocked by the radical nature of the plan, but has warmed to it, primarily because it preserves two independent newsrooms in Detroit. News staffers see it as a challenge and are digging in to make it work," said Jonathan Wolman, editor and publisher of the Detroit News. "There's a real sense that doing something to explore a new business model is far better than doing nothing, and we've embraced the idea that what we are planning here, if we can make it work, will break the devastating cycle of cutting newsroom resources to match declines in circulation and advertising."

Wolman said Detroit businesses have been undergoing dramatic restructuring for years, so readers understand.

"The point of this initiative is to preserve two independent editorial voices in one of the busiest and most compelling news towns in America," he said.

He promises the two papers, with a 135-year tradition of competition, will remain so.

"When the air clears, the News will provide innovative coverage for print, for the Web, and for mobile gadgets - and whatever develops in the years to come," he said.

In an interview on PBS' "Nightly Business Report," Dave Hunke, publisher of the Detroit Free Press and CEO of Detroit Media Partnership, acknowledged that the decision was a huge risk but was a "realistic assessment" and should have been made years ago.

Nearly 30 daily newspapers have reduced home delivery days in the past year because of slumping revenue, according to Peter M. Zollman, founding principal for Advanced Interactive Media Group, which has been tracking the data.

Newspapers are doing anything they can to reduce cost.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch has laid off another 17 newsroom personnel, 40 throughout the newspaper, and The Asbury Park Press has ordered a mandatory one week unpaid vacation during the first quarter.

Despite the economic downturn, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has fared much better.

The paper recently won Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism's prestigious John B.Oakes Award for outstanding environmental reporting and also won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and the Associated Press Managing Editors 2008 Innovator of the Year award.

It is a beacon that has inspired many in these difficult economic times.

"Newsrooms need to focus on doing the best work they can do. It sure helps reduce the gloom and doom that too much of the industry is focused on," said Marty Kaiser, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editor and ASNE vice president.

And the industry is hyper focusing.

In Washington, it's clear covering the new administration is critical, and newspapers reacted. The Washington Post doubled its White House reporting team from two to four in response to its rival's earlier announcement that the Washington Times is increasing its reporting staff from one to three and its Capitol Hill team from two to three.

It's not easy to dodge a speeding bullet as you peer through a muddied crystal ball, trying to effectively strategize for economic downturns, online transition and what lies even further ahead, the step beyond the large search engines and mobile delivery.

But no one likes a challenge better than a journalist and changing paradigms are now the norm.

The New York Times will launch an instant op-ed that will post expert viewpoints on breaking news almost immediately. Three editors are teaming up with a Web producer to oversee the new feature.

And four online community news sites will expand their local reporting staffs and bring their communities more content with a combined $390,000 investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The sites, MinnPost, voiceofsandiego, Chi-town Daily News and St. Louis Beacon, are an example of Knight's continued commitment in these difficult financial times.

Our very own organization may well change its name to the American Society of News Editors.

Other savings have come through consolidation.

South Florida's three largest dailies have announced a new initiative that broadens their content-sharing arrangement by launching a news service with print and digital stories written and produced by Florida International University journalism students.

And newspapers know they must be more visually appealing and relevant. Hearst Newspapers announced that the Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle will make their classified sections more attractive by moving from tiny gray listings to those with color, photos and catalog-like sections. In addition, Hearst is trying to bolster its coverage of movies, television and travel by combining the feature operations of the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.

Changing the face of America's newspapers is not an easy road, though.

The American Press Institute held a November summit of 50 top executives during which James Shein, one of the turnaround specialists they brought in, said the industry was in a "full-blown crisis stage."

The group's decision to meet in six months was heavily criticized by folks like Martin Langeveld, longtime newspaper publisher, who said on his After Newspapers blog: "Six months? What are they thinking? They've laid off more than 10,000 people in the last six months - what will be left six months from now? They need to launch a Manhattan project to blow up their industry and start over. Now, not six months from now."

Whether it was the criticism or the rapid changes in the industry, the American Press Institute group decided to reconvene earlier.

So, great minds are working to protect our most basic freedom - that of free speech.

Congratulations are due to The Frederick News-Post (Md.), which is celebrating its 125th year of publishing community news. It has never missed publishing an edition. Happy birthday and Godspeed.

Despite all the dire predictions, I would say, "Yes, Virginia, there will be newspapers and if you read it in the Sun, then it is so." *