The Newspaper Association of America's Presstime publication assembled 10 industry leaders to examine the state and future of the newspaper. The roundtable discussion and a related podcast are available here.

The essence of the predictions:

- Smaller in page count, smaller in size.
- Data-free.
- Contextual, analytical.
- Published less often.
- Underwitten more by subscribers, not advertising.

New data from the Newspaper Association of America indicates a $7.5-billion decline in print and online advertising in 2008. Even online revenues declined, albeit slightly.

The 16.6-per-cent drop was most significant in classified, employment and automotive categories.n But local and national retail also took hits in the year.

In his Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, Alan Mutter calculates that nearly one-quarter of all newspaper/online advertising has disappeared in three years, despite strong economic growth and online growth for much of that period. Clearly 2008 was the worst year on record for the U.S. newspaper industry.

The Newspaper Association of America released data today that indicates a loss of nearly $3 billion in revenue in the first six months of this year over last year. The $18.8 billion in revenue in the first half of 2008 is the lowest amount in a dozen years, and the results feature the first decline of online revenue in the second quarter of 2008. While overall online revenue is up year-over-year, what was gained in the first quarter was practically wiped out in the second --- a modest $35 million gain to $1.6 billion.
Print revenue has declined for nine straight quarters. year-over-year print sales were off 16 per cent in the quarter and 14.4 per cent  in the previous quarter. Classified advertising is in the biggest decline, down more than 35 per cent in the year. Help-wanted and automotive classifieds were hardest-falling.
While the troubled U.S. economy is a contributor to the dire data, clearly there are competitive media issues and significant advertising spend shifts under way.  Whether they're cyclical or permanent is a matter of opinion.

The newspaper industry is attempting to demonstrate its capability to participate in the digital age. The latest indication is the latest Newspaper Association of America report, which suggests newspaper advertising actually drove online sales. In particular, the study conducted by Google through Clark, Martire and Bartolomeo found consumers used newspaper ads as an early part of the purchase chain. The ad led to the URL, which led to more research, which led to the purchase.
The study supports longstanding research in the confidence consumers hold in newspaper advertising. What the NAA concludes is that print and online advertising are part of an ecosystem, and that shrewd advertisers using all platforms are bound to have the greatest success.