The future of the newspaper industry has been making headlines quite a bit during the past few years.

I have worked in the newspaper industry since the late 1980s. I can assure you that a lot of business and media experts are spending a lot of time these days figuring out how to make a newspaper so critical to daily life that it is one of the last things anyone would want to cut from their budget.

But those discussions are pretty academic if it’s your family that is trying to chase bills every paycheck or unemployment check, and wondering what budget item to cut next.

Yes, if you drop a newspaper print or electronic subscription, you will notice the difference in cash flow as soon as the next payment comes due. It’s the same impact you would notice on household bills if you drop the landline, the gym membership, the wireless phone, the satellite radio, the cable service or the Internet service. You will still eat. Your home will still have heat. You just have a little less “extras” in your life.

But let’s say you really do want to keep a newspaper subscription (hugs and kisses to those of you who have that interest).

What are your options?

• Think about what you value most from the newspaper. Is it the coupons? Do you follow a particular columnist? Are you interested in the police or court news? Are you looking for the sports broadcast times? Do you want to know what city council is doing with your city tax dollars? Do you want to know what Lansing is doing with your state tax dollars? Do you want to read the obituaries from “back home?” Now you have some basis in which to take on the next few questions:
• Think about your reading schedule. Do you want a newspaper seven days a week, or do you want a newspaper only one or two days a week? If you get a newspaper only on Sunday, you will not see the grocery ads that a supermarket schedules to run on a Monday, or the department store flier with the senior discount promotion that runs on a Tuesday. But that is a choice a lot of readers made long before this recession took hold.
• Think about whether the web site / facebook / twitter gives  the money-saving information your family needs. The links that appear every day on newspaper sites across the country are usually just the front page headlines. Public service announcements such as scholarship application notices, tax tip programs at the library, the free days at the museum or parks, and discount food purchase dates appear inside on the local news, living, business and community pages. Are those public service announcements, local business deals and community calendar listings available freely on the web in ANY format? (FYI: I have a lot of technical logistics to deal with in order to copy over an article that appeared only in my newspaper’s print edition to this blog.)
• Think about what newspaper is the best fit for what you are looking for. In almost every city where I have lived, there was same-day home delivery or newsstand access to multiple daily newspapers. If one publication is better suited to your needs than another, then get just that paper.
• Think about whether you would be OK with getting that newspaper content a day or two late. This opens up possibilities for sharing a subscription. Are you willing to take another family member’s newspapers to read later in the week when they are done? Maybe your families can subscribe to different newspapers and then trade?
• Think about whether you are OK with getting those Sunday coupons a week or two late. Maybe you are willing to pick through a recycling bin or ask friends for leftover Sunday coupon packets, or participate in a coupon swap box, knowing that you may get those coupons a week or two or more after publication?
• Think creative with your birthday and Christmas wish list. If you are a family on a budget, it is smart to ask for practical gifts in addition to fun gifts on your wish lists. I’ve asked for dishes and cookware over the years. There are families in which dad, grandma or aunt buys auto club memberships for the younger relatives every year. One could ask for a newspaper subscription.