Like most big metropolitan papers, it was hit with sharply rising newsprint costs this year as it struggled with increasing competition for advertiser dollars and readers.

Perhaps most threatening to the newspaper industry, electronic buying and advertising services are already competing for advertiser dollars that traditionally went to big daily newspapers.

In 2008, Sony Corporation expressed doubts about advertisement-funded games because of limited advertiser dollars and gamers' skepticism of IGA, although Sony completed an IGA deal 5 months later.

Of course, the bottom-line benefits are also important, particularly in an environment in which the viewing audience is becoming increasingly fragmented and advertiser dollars are being scattered to a broader range of channels.

And as he tightens his grip on the regional sports services, he appears intent on creating the equivalent of a a national network that can rival ESPN for advertiser dollars.

But with the new era of channel abundance and increased competition for advertiser dollars, commercial television is more and more likely to shy away from innovative or risky content.

Because of increased competition for fewer advertiser dollars, Mr. Sulzberger said, the newspaper "must respond to diminished revenue by rethinking the way we operate" and reducing costs without affecting the quality of the newspaper.

The shrinking profits have come partly because newspapers face increasing competition for advertiser dollars.

Also, you could make a killing on advertiser dollars if you ran something before it.

But publishers say competition for advertiser dollars is too intense to allow large rate increases to make up for added newsprint costs.