Cost-cutting newspapers have shed many of their youngest reporters, editors and photographers even as U.S. publishers struggle to remain relevant and become profitable via Internet, the Associated Press Managing Editors recently reported.

"A main challenge now is to understand how diverse readers are using digital tools, and to remember diversity concepts when shaping digital content," wrote Executive Editor Richard Stevens, of the Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tenn., in responding to the 13-question survey.

Meanwhile, other forms of diversity apparently held steady despite the wave of layoffs washing over American newsrooms generally. The American Society of News Editors, which has conducted a census of newsrooms since 1978, reported in April that the percentage of ethnic and racial minorities in U.S. newsrooms stood at 13.41 percent, a decline of .11 percentage points from the year prior.

Conversely, job loss among all journalists reached a 22 percent monthly average since September 2008, outpacing cuts in all industries at a rate of nearly three to one. Ultimately, the bloodletting may not have concluded, with major enterprises such as McClatchy and Gannett, respectively, reconfiguring their overseas and religion coverage.