It seems that at some point soon newspapers will not even need writers. They will simply keep presses and trucks to print and deliver their products. It is a hell of a way for a once-proud business to survive.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Two major newspapers publishers are taking steps to outsource international coverage, as falling revenue is causing more U.S. papers to shrink their foreign and national footprint." The Tribune Company, now in bankruptcy, and The New York Daily News, which is not part of any chain, may end up closing any offices they have outside the US.

Many US newspapers get most of their national news from agencies like the AP. What does that leave?

It leaves a great deal actually, and what it leaves is the key to the survival of newspaper--local coverage. Consumers can get international and national news from hundreds of websites from CNN to USA Today.com. But, what they cannot get is what is going on in the paper's hometown. And, that is often the most important news that readers look for. Other than the local newspaper there is no source to provide it.

Local newspapers may survive by being "all local" along with their websites. This is what the American newspaper was a century-and-a-half ago. Few papers had any access to news from outside their small regions. People turned to their newspapers as a way to find out about the smaller, more intimate world around them.

The future of the newspaper industry may take it back to 1855.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.