Newspapers across the country and here in the northwest are writing new headlines, in some cases about their own survival.

Some have folded, others have filed for bankruptcy, and still others are restructuring with layoffs. Newspapers are rethinking their traditional format to combat losses in readership and revenue.

In the past two weeks, the largest dailies in both Portland and Seattle, as well as several smaller papers, announced changes to their format that will shrink the papers.

Many readers noticed that last Monday's edition of The Oregonian was smaller.

"There was a noticeable difference this morning," said Colleen McKenna at Fuller's Cafe, as she sipped coffee and read the morning edition with her husband Gordon. He thinks he knows why the paper is shrinking. "Probably to save money, I guess."

The Oregonian's Monday edition will only be three sections instead of four. Whether other days of the week will lose pages is up in the air. On Monday, the Seattle Times and P-I announced reductions to the size of their papers, as did the Tacoma News Tribune and the Bend Bulletin.

Internet changes news readership

As newspapers nationwide fight declining readership, they are also struggling to combat the loss of ad revenue. Like the readers of this story, more consumers are heading to the internet, both to read news and to search classified ads.

It's resulted in layoffs and buyouts at some of the nation's largest newspaper chains, including S.I. Newhouse, owner of the Oregonian, which announced a staff reduction of 100 earlier this year.

At Gannett's Statesman Journal in Salem, staffers say another 12 employees were laid off last week.

Vancouver's Columbian recently reduced it's workforce by 20 percent and is moving back to it's former home from it's new headquarters to save money and jobs.

Meanwhile, the Tribune company - publishers of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times - made national news Monday when it filed for bankruptcy in the face of billions of dollars in debt.

The future of news: Online?

The Portland Tribune, on the streets for eight years, may be ahead of the curve in restructuring. Last May, the paper went from a twice weekly to once a week while beefing up its on-line presence.

"We weren't going to be everything to everybody. We were going to be giving communities a fiercely local paper"said Steve Clark, President and Publisher of Community Newspapers Inc. Along with the Tribune, he publishes 17 other neighborhood papers.

Clark says newspapers as we know them must change to survive.

"It means there going to have to redefine what they can and cannot do," says Clark.