The Behrens family, which marked its 100th anniversary of newspaper ownership in Marysville on Wednesday, is a vanishing breed in an era of growing corporate ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations.

Dan Behrens said his family's longtime ownership of the 6,500-circulation daily newspaper does not mean he can rest on the work done by his predecessors. "You still have to pay attention to the paper," he said. "You have to be a part of it, and work."

Out of the roughly 1,450 daily newspapers in the United States, about 270 are independent operations that are not part of a group, according to researchers for Editor & Publisher's International Year Book. A group is defined as at least three publications.

Independent or family-run newspaper operations in the United States have been in rapid decline: In 1994, there were 340, there were 440 in 1986, 850 in 1960 and 1,650 in 1920, according to a 1998 American Journalism Review article.

The numbers are likely to continue to shrink. Small newspapers can generate big profits for corporations while families may sell if there are no offspring who want to join the family business.

Bill Reader, a journalism professor at Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in Athens, said some large groups count on smaller newspapers to make up profits for their larger newspapers that lose money. "Profitable big newspapers are rare newspapers," he said.

Conversely, it is hard for some independent newspapers to remain profitable, he said.

Sandy and Thad Poulson, 68, have spent the past 30 years as publishers of the Daily Sitka Sentinel in southeastern Alaska. The couple also owns a print shop and rental property to generate revenue to keep their circulation 3,000 daily in business.

"We're a dying breed. I just don't think there's any substitute for being part of the community," she said. "We're a 'ma and pa' original."

Reader said corporations and larger family operations have the advantage of lower production costs and can centralize some operations, such as printing and even copyediting.

Roy Brown, president and chief executive of the family-run Brown Publishing Co., which has grown to include 17 daily newspapers and 50 weeklies in Ohio, said growing corporate ownership can make sense.

Companies can advertise products in multiple markets less expensively, news can be shared and collected among the newspapers in the same group, and it is easier to spread good managers among the newspapers while handling employee turnover, Brown said.

Reader said that across the country, he has seen the gains and losses of corporate ownership. He said some good newspapers have suffered when purchased by corporations, while some poorly run small newspapers have put out a much better product under corporate ownership.

Dan Behrens' grandfather, Bruce B. Gaumer, bought the Union County Journal in 1904. The newspaper published a special section Wednesday on the 100th anniversary.

Behrens said there have been overtures from companies about buying the newspaper, but nothing serious. He said his biggest concern is that the company would not serve the community as his family has done.