The family-owned Times Record newspaper in Brunswick has been sold into chain ownership. Ten people on its small staff lost their jobs. Last month, the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel were put up for sale. They are under Seattle Times ownership for now. They have shrunk in both size and staff, and some critics argue, in the quality of content as well.

In newsrooms and pressrooms across Maine, reporters and other staff members are nervous, wondering whether future owners will further downsize the paper, or if the papers will even survive.

The still-independent Bangor Daily News has tightened its belts with layoffs, as has the Sun Journal of Lewiston. An out-of-state chain that has lopped off staffers owns The Courier Gazette in Rockland, near my home, plus the Capital Weekly and two Belfast weeklies.

What we’re seeing, it seems, is the erosion of real journalism in Maine. Some people never thought too highly of this business, and sometimes with good reason. So maybe they aren’t sad to see things change. But I’ve worked for at least a dozen Maine newspapers over the years, and I believe we are losing something important. We are losing something that helps create the sense of place, our communal and regional identity.

Without newspapers, without someone telling us what is happening, all kinds of mischief can occur. It can be pretty serious, such as corporate and government corruption. Of course, unless newspapers really dig for stories, we won’t be able to root out shady goings-on. And today, many newspapers seem tame and timid, far from the old newspaperman’s challenge to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

Fewer people, you and I, are reading newspapers. Then there is “online.” The Internet offers great potential and many pitfalls. For one thing, who edits the news you read? What references do you have on the truth and accuracy of what you learn from the Net?

In an era of heavily biased television news programs, there is little reason to believe that the Internet, perhaps more intractable than TV, will provide balanced coverage of people and issues, local or global. For us folks trying to figure out what’s going on, the best idea is probably to read widely from different sources. But do we know how to do that, and do we have time for it? I’m skeptical.

I’m pessimistic about any kind of sunny future for typical newspapers in Maine and elsewhere. In Portland, Augusta, Bath, Rockland, Waterville, Bangor, Belfast – good newspapers have lost their edge. It’s a downward spiral. There is less to read in the paper, so we read less.

Things are changing fast in the newspaper business and not necessarily for the better. The problems aren’t simple, but they are basically driven by the decrease in readership. That means declining ad revenue, since advertisers want to reach a lot of people. How often do you read a newspaper? If you are an Internet user, you have a source of information at your fingertips. But how good is it? And how can you tell? The online versions of Maine newspapers can be useful. But newspapers aren’t sure how to make money online with free access.

These are scary times for newspapers and their staff, and those of us who rely on newspapers for valuable information should be worried, too.

If we lose our newspapers, we lose a place to voice our fears, our faith, and our fundamental concerns for our families, communities and beyond.

If people stop reading newspapers, will they care about what happens around them? Without a reliable source of news, they won’t even know what’s going on.

If that happens, we put democracy at risk.

Steve Cartwright is a Maine journalist living in Waldoboro.