The latest forecast for America's newspapers would suggest that extinction is not too far off. UBS figures newspaper revenues will be down 12.2 percent when the final figures are in for 2008 and tumble another 17.6 percent this year.

Already, a number of papers around the country have cut circulation, or frequency, or both, and others have gone online only, scrapping their print editions entirely.

More of that is widely expected to occur this year as the ad recession deepens.

Yet media planners and buyers don't see print newspapers disappearing, certainly not anytime soon, and they're fairly upbeat about the changes papers could introduce to stem at least some of the declines.

That's the take-away from a recent reader survey on Media Life.

Asked to say how many years before newspapers went totally online, the largest share of respondents, 32 percent, said never.

The next-largest share, 19 percent, thought five years, and the next-largest share after that, 16 percent, thought 10 years.

Readers were then asked to identify the big trend among newspapers and were told they could choose more than one answers.

More than half, 56 percent, agreed with this statement: "Beefing up online operations and phasing out print over time."

That was way head of the No. 2 choice, "More dailies simply giving up and folding,” at 39 percent.

Next, at 35 percent came reducing frequency: "Going from six or seven to three days of print publication per week."

Last, at 28 percent, came "Staying daily but going to one section only."

Interestingly, the major cause of newspaper woes in the minds of media planners and buyers is not the recession or the internet but newspaper management.

That suggests that the path to further decline is not nearly as inevitable as many would argue.

Fully a third of respondents, 33 percent, cited "their inability to adapt to the changing marketplace" as the single-biggest driving factor in the recent woes for newspapers.

That was well ahead of the two choices that tied for No. 2 with 17 percent of respondents, the internet and the newspaper's declining value as an advertising vehicle for readers.

It was also ahead of the No. 3 choice, competition from better, cheaper alternatives. That came in at 16 percent.

The tough economy came at No. 4 at 14 percent.

And for all the talk of online-only newspapers, media planners and buyers are not sure they are the answer.

Asked to define their promise, 45 percent agreed with this statement: "Not sure. While I believe newspapers still have a future in print, I think offering local content that isn't available elsewhere gives these new sites some real value."

Another fourth, 26 percent, were not at all optimistic, agreeing with this statement: "Not at all promising. Although the concept is interesting, these sites simply don't have the resources that traditional newspapers do, and they will lag both editorially and in ad selling."

Just 7 percent saw great hope, agreeing with this statement: "Very promising. This is a smart concept, focusing on hyperlocal content while avoiding the start-up costs of a print publication. This could be the future of American newspapers."

The remaining 21 percent thought it all depended on where they were located and who was backing them.

Asked to opine how newspapers could better ensure their survival, readers came forth with a wide range of suggestions, many of them positive.

Wrote one: "Continue to provide what no other resource can provide -- solid, local journalism. Without this, newspapers are either nothing but AP wire stories or opinion pieces that are no better than the local blogging community."

Wrote another: "While newspapers have experienced decline (greater in metro than community markets) the decline still gives them much bigger reach than any other media in local markets, a fact that if newspapers would report themselves would have advertisers excited again. When the huge reach of a local newspaper is compared to the niche reach of other media it is easy to see that newspapers are a good buy due to their ability to target at the same time they reach broadly. The reason this is important is that surveys have shown that advertising in newspapers is as important to readership as news content. Readers buy newspapers in many cases specifically to get the ads."

And another: "Understand that 'hyperlocal' is more than just regurgitated regional wire-type snippets and know that local info is a process and worthwhile investment. Newspaper cutbacks have been overly detrimental to the newsroom and local news gathering and analysis, and this has been a major factor at least in my case of cutting my local paper, the Hartford Courant, out of my daily routine."

Here are some of the other comments:

"Wake up and face reality: they have to compete now with all media. They no longer have a monopoly on the local audience, their circulation has declined and readers have shifted online. No one is going back to newspaper. Cut rates, offer buy a print ad, get an ad online, and start negotiating off rate card. Also, send your reps out to hit the pavement. Most newspaper reps sit in the office and wait for the phone to ring. The sales reps need to go out the door and make it happen like all the other sales reps in the media industry. Face reality and stop being lazy."

"They need to keep a strong local presence. If they rely mostly on the AP for stories and columns they will make themselves virtually useless."

"Lower cover price, improve the quality of the content, increase the in-depth coverage and analysis."

"For print, the die is cast & there's nothing I can see that would avoid its demise. There simply are not enough people content getting yesterday's news today for print to maintain readership that's attractive enough to generate the dollars needed to justify the cost of publication. For online, they have to find a way to monetize the content that's often already there while shifting toward a web-first and ultimately web-only mindset. Too many currently still see online as a complimentary product when it should become their primary product as quickly as possible."

"Local, Local, Local."

"Give free lifetime on-line subscriptions to students at high school and college levels to win them over as readers when young. For the older readers, link free subscriptions and access to other web sites with verified users. WSJ should do deals to provide free subscriptions to clients of major financial institutions. For print, treat it like the music industry treated vinyl on the way out. Keep steadily increasing the pricing to cover cost of printing/distribution. Maybe do freebie distributions to targeted (high income) postal codes to keep the demos up."

"Increase the important local investigations that impact people in their communities AND continue to be the local advertising marketplace for people to browse and shop with their fingertips before shopping."

"Provide the local and regional news that is relevant. There is too much extra garbage to sift through on some of the bigger papers. The medium-size markets are doing a much better job making their product relevant."

"Dump existing print-oriented management--too many clueless space cadets."

"They need to start catering to what the readers want and not do what they want the readers to want. Understand?"

"Newspapers need to put the reader first and deliver stories in the format and style people want. Focus locally. Honestly they need to get off their high horses and come to grips with the fact they are no longer the source people go for news."