Atlanta newspaper's cutback part of trend

ATLANTA, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's decision to stop circulating outside Atlanta reflects the industry's migration to the Web, media analysts say.

"During this terrible period of turmoil ... the trick is whether we can learn how to migrate newspaper journalism onto the new platforms before journalism dies," says Buzz Merritt, author of "Knightfall," a book about corporate profit pressure at the defunct Knight-Ridder newspaper chain.

For the past few years U.S. newspapers have seen circulation declines, as advertisers bolt for the World Wide Web and cut staffs to maintain profits, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

"We live in the Internet world," New York Times owner and publisher Arthur Sulzberger said two weeks ago, adding his newspaper might end its print editions in perhaps five years to save money.

In Atlanta's case, The Journal-Constitution, which once proclaimed it "Covers Dixie like the Dew," is slashing nine of 13 community editions, offering buyouts to 80 senior staffers -- about 17 percent of its 475 employees -- and reorganizing departments to put print and digital products on "equal footing."

It had no outlying bureaus to close, but media analysts say circulation often dictates news coverage and stature.