Newspapers have settled on a strategy to stop withering away: feast on each other for survival.

For the owners of big-city dailies like the Chicago Tribune and Denver Post, buying smaller publications and slashing costs has become a way to buy time while figuring out how to make more money online. That was the logic behind the recent failed attempt by Tribune Publishing Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, to buy two Southern California newspapers.

Last year, the industry saw the most deals for the largest amount of money since the 2008 financial crisis, with 70 daily newspapers being sold for a combined $827 million, according to mergers-and-acquisitions adviser Dirks, Van Essen & Murray. Gannett Co. bought 15 dailies, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Tribune snapped up the San Diego Union-Tribune; and Warren Buffett's newspaper chain acquired the Free Lance–Star in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Even after last year's surge of activity, more deals may be coming. The pressure to combine is only expected to grow because several media companies have spun off their lucrative TV stations, leaving newspapers to fend for themselves. In the past few years, Tribune, Gannett and News Corp. have been decoupled from their broadcast and TV operations.

"The case for consolidation has gotten stronger than ever," said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst for the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school. "It is one of the ways that newspapers are repositioning themselves against the digital competition."

Some major newspapers can afford to remain solo, especially if they're fortunate enough to have a national brand like the New York Times or to be owned by a billionaire, such as the Washington Post. But the rest of America's newspapers -- many of which are the sole source of professional journalism in their communities -- are hanging on by a thread, 20 years after the Internet first became a competitive threat by siphoning off classified advertising.

Digital Experiments

Not everything in the Fourth Estate is grim. Newsrooms continue to experiment with strategies to draw readers and convince advertisers of their value. Newspaper publishers say they're making progress with niche websites that may have national or global appeal. They've also gotten new sources of revenue from digital subscribers, sponsored events, newsletters and acquisitions of digital startups that have found an audience. 

To that end, Gannett last week acquired a minority stake in a startup called Spirited Media. Founded by former Washington Post editor Jim Brady, Spirited Media owns a Philadelphia website called Billy Penn that publishes local news and hosts events with sponsors. Gannett's investment will allow the site to expand its model to other cities, the companies said in a statement.