Paul Bryant is managing editor of The Chandler & Brownsboro Statesman. In a 16-year career, he has been recognized by state press associations for investigative journalism, features writing, and photojournalism. While weekly newspapers have not been hit as hard as larger publications in a brutal economic attack on the print industry, they’ve still suffered significant losses as advertising and circulation revenues have fallen drastically with the increasing popularity of online media and advertisers’ reluctance to spend money.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, print and online advertising revenue dropped to $6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2009 from $8.9 billion in the same quarter the previous year.

Print advertising revenue fell 28.95 percent to $5.8 billion, with classified ad revenue down 37.9 percent to $1.46 billion.

Print advertising revenue at U.S. newspapers has now fallen for 13 quarters in a row, according to NAA figures, while online ad revenue has dropped for the past six quarters.

The newspaper industry, once powerful and influential, is just not what it used to be.

Much of that can be attributed to technological advances, some of it to newspapers becoming little more than political activists or mouthpieces for politicians.

For some newspapers, it’s not even about journalism and serving advertisers anymore. They’ve gone into survival mode by cutting staff and eliminating services.

While it makes sense to save money in tough times for the industry, what most newspaper executives don’t understand or just don’t care about is that they’re cutting their own throats by heavily cutting costs.

And it shows in every aspect of production. Most notably, original reporting doesn’t appear to be a priority, balanced and attractive newspaper designs don’t seem to be as important as they once were, and inexperienced and inexpensive reporters, editors, and photographers are replacing experienced and more expensive newspaper professionals.

When that happens, you’ve got newsrooms being run by amateurs. And when newsrooms are being run by amateurs with little or no stake in their work, you’ve got a product with poorly written headlines, poorly written stories, poorly captured images, and poorly built pages.

But it doesn’t necessarily start and end with newsrooms. The cost-cutting madness involves the entire newspaper, from the publisher’s office all the way down to the carriers who deliver the papers.

The irony here is that these newspaper types are advancing their own demise while trying to prevent it.

Their answer has been to eliminate positions in every area of the newspaper instead of embracing — and adjusting — to changes in the media industry and in the economy.

Newspapers are unlike other businesses, so they cannot be managed like other businesses. They are unique — and must be treated as such.

But many in the industry appear to be ignorant of that fact, and it’s hurting what have traditionally been good newspapers. Not only that, but good newspaper people are retreating to other careers during this downslide. Already underpaid, overworked, and underappreciated, this economy has forced them out the door, adding insult to injury.

Spare me the excuses, because I’m not interested.

I grew up

in newspapers. I walked the pressrooms, smelled the newsprint and ink, watched advertising executives and reporters scurring about. I shook hands with great newspaper people and sat with my father at his desk while he worked late on his customers’ ads.

Growing up, I collected newspapers with big stories, photos and graphics and kept them in boxes in my closet. I took newspaper clipping to an entire new level, and I bought a newspaper every time I traveled. I was raised with an appreciation for the industry, a respect for its people, and a love of ink.

That’s why it is so diffi- cult for me to watch newspapers continue to decline, mostly of their own prideful doing. I remember how things used to be.

I remember how hard talented and dedicated newspaper people worked and how positively they were perceived in their communities.

It’s just not that way anymore, and I hate it.

As I’ve written before, not everyone is cut out for the work. It’s hard, it can be unflattering at times, and we’re expected to be tolerant of everyone and everything else in the interest of impartiality.

Newspaper people sacrifi ce enough without having to endure the misguided - however well-intentioned - actions of desperate newspaper executives.

I haven’t gone their way. I learned the right way in this business, and those lessons have stayed with me wherever I’ve gone. Every newspaper is different, and every community it serves is different.

It’s that belief that drives my primary newspaper philosophy: That a good newspaper manager takes his experiences with him, combines them with sound industry standards and research, and uses that to advance the company he represents while also serving the community.

But I don’t see much of that anymore. I see people going through the motions to simply collect a paycheck, and that leads to mediocre or bad newspapers, especially in the newsroom.

What we’ve all got to understand is that newspapers exist not for newspaper people but for their communities. Again, the news industry is unlike any other.

To that extent, it deserves the attention and respect needed from inside to survive on the outside. If newspapers don’t appreciate their own, they certainly can’t expect to be appreciated by readers and advertisers.

In other words, the print industry must clean up its own house before it can clean up someone else’s. It must continually adjust to an ever-changing media industry, ensuring its survival no matter what happens.

And it must figure out how to do that without cutting its own throat.