As a handful of major American newspapers close and others barely cling to life, a small but growing body of economics research supports the notion that newspapers make a difference in their communities.

This spring, Princeton economist Sam Schulhofer-Wohl and his colleague Miguel Garrido issued a paper of vital importance to print journalists desperate for a sliver of good news: “Do Newspapers Matter? Evidence from the Closure of The Cincinnati Post.”

The economists noted their findings were “statistically imprecise,” yet concluded that newspapers, “even underdogs such as the (Cincinnati) Post, which had a circulation of just 27,000 when it closed – can have a substantial and measurable impact on public life.”

But the unsettling possibility looms that some big cities could lose their sole remaining daily newspaper – and that the public won’t care. If the dead-tree edition of a newspaper falls in a crowded media forest, will it matter, except to the journalists who work there? Are newer, hipper online news outlets poised to fill the void? What, if anything, will be irrevocably lost?

Read the full report from the American Journalism Review here.