Forget Groundhog Day -- It's "National Buy a Newspaper Day."

By: E&P Staff Monday is ?National Buy a Newspaper Day,? a phenomenon birthed, appropriately enough for these confused times in the business, on the Internet.

Chris Freiberg, the public safety reporter for the Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, created the day with a site on Facebook, http://www.buyanewspaperday.com. Nearly 20,000 have joined the event, promising to buy a copy of a printed newspaper on Monday.

Freiberg's Facebook entry begins by quickly sketching the parlous state of the industry, with the possible imminent disappearance of dailies in Seattle and Denver. He laments the end of home delivery most of the week by Detroit's dailies.

"If things get really bad, some experts say that some small towns might not have any paper by 2010," he writes. "And that's a shame. Unlike radio which has become dominated by opinion or TV news which only looks for the 30 second sound bite, the local newspaper digs deep every day to get you, the reader, the full story on what's happening in your town."

Freiberg did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment sent to his office in Fairbanks when the local time was 5:30 a.m.

National Buy a Newspaper Day is intended to get people reacquainted with the newspaper -- the printed newspaper.

"So for one day, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, please make it a point to pick up your local newspaper (reading it online doesn't count)," he writes. "It doesn't matter if it's a daily or weekly, right-leaning or left-leaning. If you're a college student and you get the school paper for free, buy the town paper. If you subscribe, why not pick up a second copy?

"Who knows? You might like what you see and come back another day, and another, and another..."