U.S. communications and polling expert Doug Schoen says that although the global recession, coupled with readers' migration to online, has financially hurt newspapers, it does not mean newspapers are facing extinction.

"While newspapers might not have a lot of money right now, what they do have is a dedicated, sought-after audience with a deep connection to and belief in the credibility of newspapers. To survive, newspapers must leverage these two critical components - audience and credibility - and more quickly adapt and innovate in a rapidly evolving media landscape," Schoen wrote in his column for the Huffington Post Friday.

Evidence of difficult times for the newspaper industry were seen everywhere in 2008, and experts all agree things will get worse before they get better. Yet, what will sustain newspapers are the two components they've always had, credibility and audience, he states.

Schoen writes that he recently conducted a poll for a book he is writing about the U.S. 2008 presidential election and economic crisis, and how people view media coverage of those two events. The results? More than three-fourths of adults and 84 percent of so-called elites read newspapers each day or a few times a week, either in print or online.

Further, of those polled, two-thirds said newspapers were informative on the election, and the same amount said newspapers led in covering the U.S. economic downturn.

"People are still reading newspapers and they are reading them often. Newspapers are still influential, still important in shaping the news and particularly important in influencing elites," Schoen stated in his Huffington Post column.

Meanwhile, 80 percent said they watched cable TV news for election information, and "more people found cable television to be more informative on election issues than newspapers." Yet Schoen is quick to point out that "while television may lead in viewers, many believe that newspapers play a critical role in shaping the coverage that appears both on broadcast and all other mediums. Over half of adults and elites agreed that newspapers provided definitive information that guided both the networks and cable stations in reporting the news. Sixty percent of adults said that newspapers set the tone for news coverage both in Washington and around the country. And more adults and elites believed that newspapers are more, not less, authoritative than cable television."