The perfect storm of a prolonged recession and the online information explosion is leaving journalism in crisis. Particularly newspapers.

Newscenter's Kathleen Shannon went behind the scenes with staff at the Portland Press Herald and Village Soup - two very different Maine media companies who are navigating the industries challenges in very different ways.

The Portland Press Herald and it's affiliate newspapers the Kennebec Journal and the Waterville Sentinel have seen ad revenue plummet from 90-million in 2004 to 65-million this year.

"I believe some of that will come back ... in print," says the newpaper group's new owner, Richard Connor. "We think classified will come back in these two areas: real estate and automotive." Connor also believes he can find significant revenue online ... but isn't saying exactly how he plans to do that.

In the meantime, the Press Herald has closed all of its bureaus and let go of dozens of staff members in several rounds of layoffs. There are now 14 reporters to cover the entire state and produce online content. Which means anyone who still has a job is multitasking.

"I was a reporter for 18 years, spent 7 years as an editor, "says Dieter Bradbury. "My editing position was cut on one of the previous rounds of layoffs that we had here. I went back to reporting two years ago. Now with the new owners here I've been asked to step back into editing again which I've been doig for about two weeks. So when I come in in the morning, I look ahead and I think what am I gonna be doing today?"

Village Soup's development in the industry is about as backward as they come. For the first six years, it was an online service only.

"[traditional media] Made fun of us. You don't know what you're doing," recalls Holly Anderson, Online Director at Village Soup. "Why would we go to this internet thing to read the news?"

Now the company publishes six affiliate newspapers, after having launched two themselves and buying out the Courier group. And community groups, municipalties, weekly newspapers and even media giants like the Miami Herald want to know how they do it.

"Really being well rounded makes you more valuable at the end of the day it makes what we do we hope more valuable, says Holly Anderson. She reports, writes, takes photos for stories, posts them, and edits proofs for the six newspapers. "Because we can do a lot of different things we're not married to a piece of black and white copy. We can throw videos in there we can make tables and charts."

Anderson believes daily newspapers no longer exist a year from now, but rather companies will produce the equivalent of a Sunday paper once a week and save daily reporting for online platforms. How will it be funded? "I believe long term businesses are still going to be the ones to support our activities through advertising and through what we call our business member program,"says Anderson. "For paying us a small amount - in our case its only $1000 a year - they can have free access to our site and post daily their lunch specials a dentist posts 2-3 times a week."

Connor is still weighing his options for how to make money online. "I'm in it for the long term. I don't have a short term agenda."