Fearing the loss of a seven-day-a-week newspaper, staff at The Plain Dealer are launching a campaign to alert readers to dramatic changes in their industry and the potential consequences of Cleveland being without a daily.

Beginning Sunday, residents will begin to see billboards, bus placards and advertisements asserting that the newspaper as they know it may be in peril and asking them to make their feelings known to the paper's owners.

The campaign to "Save The Plain Dealer" is being led by members of Newspaper Guild Local One, which represents about 170 writers, photographers, designers and other newsroom staff. Ohio's largest newspaper is owned by New Jersey-based Advance Publications Inc., which has been curtailing print publication at its newspapers in other cities, including New Orleans.

Advance, led by heirs of publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse, has not announced plans for The Plain Dealer. But changes are coming, employees have been told, and in other cities those changes included the loss of seven-day home delivery and staff cuts.

"We're trying to get out ahead of this thing and give people a stake and a say in what happens," said John Mangels, the leader of a Guild steering committee designing the marketing campaign. "It really ought to be the community's fight as well as ours."

Mangels, the newspaper's science writer, argues that a diminished staff will almost certainly produce a diminished product and that the community stands to lose the insight and guidance provided by a daily newspaper with an experienced staff.

"We're trying to preserve a seven-day-a-week paper and the staff that produces it and the quality journalism that is in it," he said.

Debra Adams Simmons, editor of The Plain Dealer, said she shares the high ideals. The paper is studying what it needs to become in the digital age, she said, but the path forward need not result in lower quality.

"Like the Guild, The Plain Dealer is committed to quality journalism. We have that in common," she said. "We also want to figure out the best way to get that information to our readers. That's what we're studying. That doesn't conflict with our commitment to excellent journalism."

Circulation at The Plain Dealer, as at other major newspapers, has eroded steadily in recent years as the economy soured and people turned to other news sources, especially on the Internet. Most newspapers have created Internet news sites, like Cleveland.com, that draw readers but attract a fraction of the revenue enjoyed by the print edition. The result is an untenable business model.

Advance, which operates three dozen newspapers across the country, shocked the industry in May with its plan to cease daily publication of the storied Times-Picayune in New Orleans and to focus on its website. More recently, Advance announced changes in the publishing schedules for Syracuse, N.Y., and Harrisburg, Pa.

Other newspaper companies also have been changing distribution schedules as well. In Detroit, for example, the Free Press, owned by the Gannett Co., is delivered to homes only on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Print editions are sold at newsstands the other days of the week. In a brief phone interview Friday, Steve Newhouse, chairman of the digital division of Advance, said each Newhouse market is being treated differently and that no conclusions have been drawn for Cleveland.

"The team at The Plain Dealer is working through what is the best approach in this changing time," he said. "No decisions or choices have been made. There is no pre-conceived plan. It's an ongoing process."

Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst and the author of "Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get," said he would be surprised if Cleveland does not see a big change. He said Advance appears committed to lower-cost, online journalism and has show little interest in opinions from local communities.

"They think it's their business," Doctor said. "We get down to that basic question. Is it a business? Is it a public service? Is it both? If it's both, this is a great test of their principles."

Civic leaders in New Orleans petitioned the Newhouse family to retain the daily tradition or consider selling the paper to local owners, to no avail.

Those appeals came after the decision had been made to curtail publication, Doctor noted. Cleveland has had some warning. The staff at The Plain Dealer said they decided to act.

"What's coming is not good," said Harlan Spector, president of the Newspaper Guild. "It may be good for our out-of-town owners, but it benefits no one in Northeast Ohio."

The Guild will begin trumpeting its message with a half-page ad in Sunday's Plain Dealer, asking readers to "Save the Plain Dealer. Don't let Cleveland's daily paper fade away."

The appeal refers readers to a Facebook page where they can get information on how to express their feelings and contact the paper's owners.

A multimedia campaign will commence with radio and television ads, Spector said, partly funded by a grant from the guild's parent union, the Communications Workers of America.

Meanwhile, letters are being mailed and emailed to some 500 political, business and civic leaders, saying that Cleveland could become the largest city in America without a daily paper and asking them to subscribe, advertise and show support. An online petition has been posted at Change.org.

Steve Newhouse said he will be looking at business trends and industry data, not sentiment.

"I think we need to address the economic and media realities that are facing us," he said. "If we can come up with a plan that supports local journalism and the great work we've already done, that's the best we can hope for."