Who would start a newspaper now? Aren? they all dying slow, painful deaths?

The creation of the Santa Clarita Independent may prove that there? still a future in print. Or its three founders ?a publisher, an ad salesman and a journalist ?may lose their investment.

The inaugural issue of the Independent, a free tabloid that its founders call ?n alternative weekly that? family friendly,?hit newsstands across the Santa Clarita Valley on May 14. The paper was founded by former employees of the Santa Clarita Signal, a local daily paper that has suffered some of the same difficulties as the majority of other news publications around the country.

Jay Harn, publisher of the Independent, was laid off from his job as publisher of the Signal in September. Harn and his two partners are the only investors so far in the new publication. They readily acknowledge that they?e launching a newspaper in what could be the worst climate ever for the industry. But they?e banking on an appetite for local news coverage in Santa Clarita to give the Independent an opening to establish itself.

?ither we?e the most brilliant guys around or we?e the stupidest guys around,?said Harn of himself and the Independent? two other co-founders, Alex Schildkret, the advertising director, and Greg Eichelberger, the managing editor. ?ut my feeling is that there? a niche and that we can make it in this town.

Marc Cooper, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and a longtime former columnist at the L.A. Weekly, doesn? share Harn? optimism.

? wish them well,?Cooper said. ?ut it? like these guys are climbing up Mount Everest in the winter in their underwear.?p>The launch of the Independent is a countertrend, considering the challenges facing the newspaper industry. Last year, total advertising revenue for newspapers declined 17 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America. In the last half of 2008, newspaper circulation fell 7.1 percent, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The reason, of course, is that more and more readers are turning to the Web, sending newspaper circulation down. Yet newspapers still haven? found a way to generate enough revenue from their sites. Factor in the recession, and the problems only grow. Some daily newspapers, such as ones in Denver and Seattle, have folded.

Shoestring

So far the Independent is being run on a shoestring. It has no Web site, though Harn said one is coming in June. It has no newsroom ?employees work out of their homes ?and the three founders are its only permanent staff. It relies on a dozen or so volunteer freelancers to produce much of the paper.

But Harn dismissed suggestions that his paper? size means it won? practice serious journalism. He? signed on former staff writers from the Signal to fill his paper? pages, including John Boston, an award-winning humor writer and local historian, and Jim Holt, a former reporter who will do investigations.

The Independent also will undercut the Signal? ad rates. The Signal, which is owned by Morris Multimedia Inc. of Savannah, Ga., has an average daily circulation of about 12,000, said Ian Lamont, its publisher. Harn wouldn? say how many copies of the Independent would be printed.

Lamont said he wasn? concerned about the competition.

?here? numerous media here, but we?e the only daily,?he said.

Local news media don? cover the Santa Clarita Valley the way they used to.

Both the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News used to have teams of reporters dedicated to covering the region. But both papers have fallen on hard times and now Santa Clarita appears in their pages less frequently. Meanwhile, the Signal, which laid off four people in February, has about a half-dozen reporters to cover a region that has a population of more than 250,000.

?f you plopped Santa Clarita down in the Midwest, we? probably have our own large newspaper, maybe two, and a couple TV stations,?said Jeff Wilson, who publishes local news blog SCVTalk.com and will be an unpaid columnist for the Independent. ?ut because we?e in L.A.? shadow, we don? get any of that.?p>The Independent hopes to exploit that coverage gap. Its weekly publication means it will be next to impossible for the Independent to cover breaking news, so Harn plans news analysis and feature stories. The Independent also plans to cover stories most newspapers ignore, such as Little League games.

Harn and his partners reason that if the Independent can draw readers looking for news they can? find elsewhere, it will also draw advertising from Santa Clarita-based retailers and service providers trying to attract local customers. To lure businesses that might be cutting back during the recession, the Independent plans to offer inexpensive ad rates made possible by the paper? low overhead.

?he businesses in this community still need to get word out as to what they provide, especially in a recession,?said Schildkret, a former advertising salesman at the Signal. ?t the same time, you need to make it more affordable to small businesses to advertise.?p>He also said the Independent would keep its advertising G-rated, which would distinguish it from other alternative weeklies that run racy advertisements. ?e don? want to be a part of that,?he noted.

Weekly troubles

While Harn said the Independent? formula and coverage model are unique, alternative weeklies in other regions of Los Angeles have suffered.

L.A. Weekly has seen its circulation fall and has laid off staff. L.A. City Beat, which was at one point distributed at more than 1,500 locations around Los Angeles County, ceased printing in March. Both those publications had access to a wider reader base than the Independent will have, said Cooper of the Annenberg School.

?hese guys might have the right answer,?he said of the Independent. ?ut if they do, they?e going to defy everybody? predictions and everybody? notions about where things are going.?p>Another issue the Independent? founders will have to grapple with is the high cost of printing and distributing a newspaper. Printing costs can doom nascent publications, and Cooper questioned the logic of distributing a physical paper when news can be distributed for free over the Internet.

Harn is convinced there? still demand for a printed product.

?e firmly believe that print isn? dead yet,?he said.