News coverage in Berkeley is undergoing a transformation, something media experts say is a symptom of print media's struggle in the digital age.

Last Friday, The Berkeley Daily Planet, which is produced twice a week, announced that it has decided to publish the paper only once a week but will begin updating its Web site on a daily basis.

This change follows the March decision by the Bay Area News Group to stop publishing both the print and online editions of The East Bay Daily News due to a lack of funds from advertisements, publishers said.

"The news (regarding the Planet) unfortunately does not surprise me," said Neil Henry, dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, in an e-mail. "There are many papers going in this direction. You can only lose so much money for so long."

Media experts said the Planet's switch to increased online coverage will likely save them money and reflects the fact that the local population is more in tune with the Internet.

"It costs a lot to print news in hard copy. Always has," Henry said. "The wonder of publishing online today is that it's virtually free, as is distribution."

But some may be in the habit of reading the paper in print form, Henry said.

"Many people read the Daily News and Planet on public transportation, and coffee houses and the like," he said. "I wonder if the same people will be reading the Planet on their mobile devices now, or laptops. I kind of doubt it."

Still, Becky O'Malley, the editor-in-chief of the Planet, says she is optimistic about her paper's change.

"We have been increasing our Web coverage anyway," she said. "We like the idea of how immediate it can be, and it's more fun, really."

Response to the paper's decision has been "surprisingly enthusiastic," she said. As of Friday, the paper had only received one complaint.

Local papers have always struggled in Berkeley because its large student population cares more about national issues than local ones and because it is a hard location to attract advertisers to, said John Armstrong, president and publisher of the East Bay division of Bay Area News Group, which publishes 23 daily newspapers throughout the Bay Area.

"The kind of city issues that normally would be the backbone of the news coverage of a local newspaper are perhaps not as attractive to the students at UC Berkeley as they might be in another city," Armstrong said.

Armstrong said other papers in the group, like the Contra Costa Times' West County Times edition and the Oakland Tribune, still cover important Berkeley issues but are more successful at attracting advertisers than a paper that is specific to Berkeley.

Stephen Chen, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Californian, said his paper is also making changes to reflect the changing presentation of news. But he said The Daily Californian has no plans to stop producing print editions on a daily basis during the school year.

"We're really focusing on developing our Web site," Chen said. "We still feel like the print edition is very valuable and a lot of people still only read the print edition."

City officials say they are worried, though, because the Planet and the Daily News are two of only a few papers that have given in-depth coverage to distinctly Berkeley-related issues.

"Any time we lose information getting out to the public, I think it is a sad loss," said Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington.

Tags: GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, NEIL HENRY, THE BERKELEY DAILY PLANET, EAST BAY DAILY NEWS, THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN