Here's a news flash from the future:

Journalism lives. Newspapers live.

If you like reading the folded, crinkly paper version of The Inquirer, as people did in 1829, you are still going to be able to do that 20 years from now in 2029.

Of course, you will pay more for the privilege. And as a fan of the ink-on-paper Inky, you will rank among the minority of readers, the majority preferring a wireless gadget that sends the news to their pocket.

"No single format will overtake the other," said Laine Cunningham, a North Carolina educator, writer and consultant who follows news-industry trends. "Just as movies have continued to run on-screen after video and DVDs became available, print versions of newspapers will continue to be produced."

Which is not to say that the changes of the next 20 years will not be dramatic and wrenching.

Here in the present, newspapers are getting hammered by the decay of the business model that sustained them for 200 years, even as their overall readership grows.

Like other big-city newspapers, The Inquirer's paid, print-edition circulation has fallen over time and continues to fall - to 288,298 on weekdays and 550,400 on Sundays, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

More and more, newspaper owners have argued that readership, not copies, should be the calculation. The Inquirer's readership of its print edition averages 833,669 people on weekdays and 1,504,941 on Sundays, according to Scarborough Research, which measures consumers' media preferences and habits.

The readership of the Philly.com Web site, which offers news from The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, is big and growing. Figures compiled by Omniture, a Web analytics firm, show the site draws 4.5 million unique visitors a month. Some of those people read the print edition as well.

The number of pages viewed by those Web site readers has been growing about 40 percent a year. In March, when The Inquirer dominated coverage of the corruption trial of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, Philly.com recorded more than 60 million page views.

It is that "robust, muscular demand for our work" that assures Inquirer editor William K. Marimow that whatever changes come, the newspaper - the news organization - will continue to provide information of primary importance to people in the Philadelphia region.

"I don't think the demand is going to dissipate," Marimow said. "The change is the means of delivery."

And the structure of payment.

You will not have to wait until 2029 to see more newspapers charging people to read their Web sites, industry watchers said. Giving away the news has proved - shockingly - to be a poor means of producing income.

Inquirer publisher Brian P. Tierney said the newspaper would launch a paid-content model on its Web site before the end of the year. The details are being discussed.

Other, game-changing ideas are in the works.

One is E-paper, which looks and partly acts like paper, in that it can be rolled. In 2029, electronic paper could enable newspapers to offer all the advantages of print - portability, convenience, readability - in a format that provides minute-by-minute updates.

Improved digital translation devices could make it possible for newspapers to publish in several languages - offering a route to new readers and advertisers, said Andy Petroski, director of learning technologies at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. The ability to publish The Inquirer in six languages - online or in print - would provide an opportunity to grow vast new audiences.

"I'm very optimistic," said Scot Kerr, president of Mediaspace Solutions, which helps companies place newspaper ads. "I've always said, newspapers may be slow to react, but once they react, get out of the way. Once they adopt a new way of doing things, they become a steamroller."