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PHOENIX — A daily newspaper in suburban Phoenix stakes its future on a bold experiment in hopes of surviving a declining industry: reducing the number of publication days of its print edition while posting news on its Web site daily.

The East Valley Tribune, owned by Freedom Communications Inc., is the largest newspaper in the country to take this approach as the industry struggles with competition from Internet news sources, dwindling circulation, an economic downturn and slumping revenues from advertising, particularly classifieds.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see more of this as the tsunami that has hit the newspaper business moves on," said John Morton, a veteran newspaper analyst based in Silver Spring, Md. "It looks like conditions are going to be negative certainly through 2009 and perhaps through 2010."

The approach intends to reduce the high costs of producing and delivering printed newspapers while retaining readers and advertisers as the industry moves deeper into online and niche publishing.

Two smaller newspapers in Wisconsin — The Capital Times in Madison and The Superior Telegram — have already made similar changes. Earlier this year, both papers went from six to two days a week with print editions and focused their daily news online.

The Capital Times, a paid paper that was converted to a free publication during the change, is delivered with a morning newspaper that has wider distribution. The Superior Telegram, which remained a paid newspaper, mails its print editions.

But the East Valley Tribune, with a combined paid and free circulation in excess of 100,000, will be the largest daily to take the leap when the changes go into effect in January. The Christian Science Monitor, with a circulation of about 50,000, next year will become the first national newspaper to drop its daily print edition and focus on publishing online.

The Trib, as locals call it, had a high-water-mark paid circulation of 94,500 in 1997. It competes in the Phoenix metro market with nearly 40 weeklies and the Freedom-owned Daily News-Sun in Sun City. But the longtime battle has been with The Arizona Republic, the nation's 10th-largest newspaper and Gannett Corp.'s biggest daily besides USA Today.

N. Christian Anderson, an Arizona State University journalism professor and a former Freedom Communications editor and executive who had oversight over the Arizona newspaper, said a combination of factors prompted the changes at the Tribune.

The newspaper was suffering from the economic downturn and faced stiff competition for classified ads from Web sites. It also was considered a secondary advertising outlet, behind The Republic, that could be dropped by big retailers once things got tight economically. "It's not a story that's unique to the East Valley," Anderson said.

Tribune Publisher Julie Moreno announced in October that the paper would cut 142 jobs, or 40 percent of its staff, by January. The paper will no longer be distributed in the affluent suburb of Scottsdale or to Tempe, home to Arizona State University, or charge subscribers. Papers will be tossed onto driveways and stacked into free racks in four targeted, growing communities: Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek.

"You give something up on the fringes to get more on the core," said Jonathan Segal, president of Freedom Communications, which also owns the Orange County (Calif.) Register and 31 other dailies and 77 weeklies.