Pundits have been predicating the newspaper industry's demise for years, and with rising costs and layoffs in newsrooms across the country, some are already preparing to put the final nail into print's coffin.

But publishers like E.W. Scripps Company, a national media conglomeration, are hoping to stop the bleeding by turning their focus away from big brands and instead looking to the barbers, florists and local businesses that fill the communities they report on.

But the papers aren't looking for advertisers to dump big amounts into print. Instead, they're looking for them to spend their money on online-only advertising. Local advertisers are expected to spend $12.9 billion online this year, but newspaper websites received only 27 percent of local internet revenue this year.

According to Scripps, online-only advertising revenues are on the rise. About 10 percent of advertising revenue comes from the internet, and 68 percent of that is tied to print ads. But revenue for online advertising linked to print is down 17 percent this year, while online-only ad revenue is up nearly 30 percent.

By focusing on local, Scripps estimates it will sell enough ads by 2012 to support print and online publications, without staff cuts.

"That's where we have most of our sights set for the foreseeable future," Rusty Coats, VP for interactive at Scripps, told The New York Times. "That's the largest source of our growth across the company."

Both Scripps and other publishers like McClatchy have raised commissions for online ad sales, while others like A.H. Belo are turning to telemarketers, trying to lure local businesses into buying on newspapers websites. Newspapers are buoyed in part by new tools such as Yahoo's APT ad platform and behavioral targeting tactics, which are helping the success rates of online ads.