From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Does the news have a future?

Hello again, I'm Warren Olney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Newspapers have more readers than ever,

but they're downsizing and going bankrupt, threatening not just providers of news, but the news itself.

Major American cities may soon have no papers at all. The problem, of course, they're giving their

product away for free on the Internet. That's a business model that can't be sustained, and the question is, will a new generation

of news consumers be willing to pay?

We'll hear different ideas about keeping traditional journalism alive, or is it time to develop

new methods for keeping the public informed?

On Reporters' Notebook later on, Hollywood and the Oscars, first here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,

and the Skoll Foundation, supporting social entrepreneurs around the world, uncommon heroes dedicated to

the common good. Learn more at scowl.org. Hello again, Warren-Analny, back with To the Poet. As of last

year, more people were getting their news for free on the Internet than were paying for newspapers and magazines.

They are in deep trouble. We'll hear proposals for preserving journalism as we've come to know it,

and for creating new ways of serving consumers of information.

On reporter's notebook, it's time again for the Oscars. On Sunday evening, we'll talk to the president of the National Society of Film Critics.

First is news update. President Obama today told the nation's mayors they have a friend in the White House.

But he also said he would use the full power of the presidency to crack down if economic stimulus money is misused or misspent.

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