The current fear goes something like this: "If the newspapers disappear, so does all the real original reporting with it." The basic charge is that there is no business model for "giving away" news online, because online revenue is too miniscule and newspapers spend an enormous amount to get us that amazing original content.

The trouble is that a lot of those assumptions are just plain false. Once you start delving into the numbers those assumptions begin to wash away.

For instance, what does an average major daily pay, in terms of a percentage of its overall budget, for its editorial department? While one's inclination may be to assume that it is a huge portion, the reality is that the number averages between 7 and 10 percent. That means the rest of the cost of running a paper is tied up in printing, distributing, marketing and selling that paper.

Considering those percentages, let's look at McClatchy's 2008 numbers. McClatchy as an organization reported total earnings of approximately $1.9 billion. They also reported online advertising revenue of approximately $180 million. Some quick math indicates that about %9.5 of McClatchy's total revenue came from online advertising. Sound like a familiar percentage?

But that's McClatchy, what about the Bee? While numbers haven't been published breaking down the Bee's costs specifically for 2008, we can make some estimates and compare those with revenue numbers. The revenue numbers can be broken out of the McClatchy reports. Of the $180 million that McClatchy makes in online ad revenue, approximately $30 million comes from California and of that, slightly more than half comes from The Sacramento Bee.

That means that The Sacramento Bee has about $15-16 million in online ad revenue. And if I had $15-16 million dollars I could provide Sacramento with one really stellar newsroom and mountains of daily reporting on the region. But you don't have to take my word for it. In fact the Bee already does provide stellar coverage for near that amount. With approximately $211 million in revenue, it is likely the Bee's editorial department costs in the neighborhood of $15-20 million.

In a recent Bee article Al Tompkins, a Poynter faculty member, was quoted as saying, "Who's going to cover the planning and sewer commissions?" The answer: Geoff Doughtery plans to. Geoff Dougherty of chitowndailynews.com is building a newsroom for approximately $2 million. Click on the link to check out his extensive coverage.

While this analysis is not done by a professional economist, or accountant, it is clear that in general, the news about news, is not as grim as some make it seem. My aim was to ground this panic with a few numbers that make sense of the world we live in, so that we will begin to be able to figure out the new world we are heading for.

Statistics sited in this story can be found in this press release from the McClatchy website.