The Monitor "has never been a newspaper that's supported itself through advertising," he said, adding "it's been a subscription product. It's been challenging, especially with distribution through the U.S. mail," whose rates continue to rise.

Though she's hopeful, Rogers said she isn't sure the transition online — at the Monitor and with other newspapers — will maintain or grow the subscription base over time, as technology continues to change.

"How will readers want to get their news five years from now? Will they be satisfied with online, or will they just keep letting us know what they want" as new delivery mechanisms evolve. "What about all these seasoned reporters we're letting go?"

Talbot said the Monitor hasn't had "a drastic cut in staff, either editorial or on the business side. It's been pretty modest" and mostly through attrition, he said.

Rogers said she believes the Monitor will survive in an extremely competitive secular marketplace because it is "a leavening product."

"I think our motto, 'To injure no man, but to bless all mankind,' that was very important to (Christian Science founder) Mary Baker Eddy, that journalism should not be to tear down or do damage. She founded it to be a model of what journalism should be."

That's defined as "being objective, uncovering evils that need to be uncovered, but to build up, to have something in every issue showing how people are combating famine or conflict," Rogers said.

"You could read the same story that appears in the Monitor in another publication that would emphasize the sensational," Talbot said. "But hopefully (in the Monitor) they will come away with a sense of hope and a solution-oriented approach.

"If it can give realistic hope, the Monitor is fulfilling its mission," he said. "It doesn't have a denominational sort of spin to it, but … there are Christian Science values or ideals that come out in the paper."

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com