One of the most compelling and critically important side stories (or maybe it is THE story and the business stuff is secondary) related to the death of the daily newspaper is the impact on our communities, our society, and our democracy. There are a wide range of opinions about what will happen to the vacuum being created as newspapers implode and disappear, or at a very minimum, become far less able to afford true journalism. I subscribe to the belief that the concern is extremely justified, but that successful alternatives are already emerging and will continue to do so at an accelarting pace. In any event, Doonesbury has a great arc this week on the dumbing of America and the panel below even connects to the death of newspapers….very amusing but horrifying as well.

The pace of stories about appearing everywhere about the death of the dailies is reaching a fevered pitch, and everyone, it seems, has an opinion about what will and will not work to save the newspapers from an inevitable demise. The following are just a sample of the deluge of stories over the past few weeks about what will certainly be a major theme in 2009 (even more so than in 2008…).

• Time thinks that micropayments are the answer

• Portfolio’s Felix Salmon says they aren’t

• Slate thinks that newspapers should declare themselves religions and reap the tax benefits

• Maybe the future of printed journalism lies in customized, printed blog posts

• Can Google save the dailies by “merging without merging?’

• No matter what the answer is, at least the New York Times is furiously and intelligently attacking the problem

• And maybe the end of printed dailies is not as devastating an outcome as most (including me) think. Seth Godin, for one, doesn’t seem to be too nervous about it.