Local newspapers have been published in Britain since Berrow's Worcester Journal, which dates back to 1690. Since then the industry had expanded continuously, helped by developments ranging from the abolition of Stamp Duty in 1855 to the explosion in advertising that allowed freesheets to spread during the 1980s and 1990s. Yet the severity of today's downturn and the fact that the industry is constructed on fragile foundations are threatening the future of many local newspapers, leaving suburbs and smaller towns at risk of being without their own publication.

Johnston Press, the publisher of the Yorkshire Post, is expected to confirm the dismal situation today, reporting that advertising is down nearly 40 per cent in the first few weeks of this year.

Trinity Mirror, its rival, which is facing the same commercial pressures, closed one title a fortnight last year. It is a rate that could yet increase in 2009. Under such pressures, it is hardly surprising that Observer Standard has tumbled into administration.

The real problem for the industry is that there is simply no easy solution. Trinity Mirror believes that more mergers between the big companies will help - and it will, to a degree, but it will not deal with the internet threat from Google - which now dominates classified revenues - or the fact that titles have become overdependent on property or recruitment advertising.

It is paid-for titles that have the best chance today, possibly by extending their reach into the suburbs that are dominated by the freesheets. Expect those freesheets to be replaced by cheaper-to-produce websites.

Eventually, the economy will recover and some of today's warnings will look overblown. But the change to the newspaper industry is real enough: come 2010, many of our doormats will be less cluttered at the end of the week.

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