AbitibiBowaters: where is the bottom of this slippery slope?

Implications: There are 530 major newspapers in the US which are struggling with the highest newsprint prices since 1995.  They have already reduced the weight of the paper to 45 gsm and reduced the width of the paper. The NY Times instituted a waste reduction campaign that produced a 10% reduction in paper requirements.  The Chicago Tribune announced it will balance advertizing with editorial content that will result in a company wide reduction of 500 pages/week. What are the next steps?   Stopping publishing on Saturday like the Washington Times?  Eliminating the 4 page WSJ weekend edition from the Saturday paper. Or, combining several regional papers into a "super-regional paper that will see the demise of locally owned newspapers in smaller cities.  But..the worst remedy would be to reduce publication to four days/week.  All this will occur after the daily price goes first to $1.00/copy, then $1.25 and finally to $1.50. And what will happen to the paper mills? More shutdowns!

Analysis: How many more paper mills must be shut down before supply/demand balance is achieved?  Already the North American market has shrunk from 13 million tons/year in 1999 to a figure as low at 8.5 million mt at the end of 2008.  Publishers are taking steps to reduce paper consumption by instituting waste reduction campaigns, balancing editorial content with advertizing space, expanding the super regional newspapers by shutting down smaller newspapers in shrinking markets and even eliminating Saturday editions.  If all these fail to do the job, then there's even talk of reducing publication to four editions/week.  The newsprint producers have two options in the face of this shrinking N.A. market and that is to expand their overseas shipments to countries like China, India, most Middle Eastern Countries, Latin America and some African countries.  The second option is to reduce their dependence on standard newsprint in favor of directory paper, mechanical specialties, SC grades and even LWC (providing the mill already has an off-machine coater).  There's no ready answer to the question we posed in the title - where is the bottom of this slippery slope?  We could wish our crystal ball wasn't so cloudy!