Do you hear that sound? Listen carefully. It’s being heard in newsrooms from Los Angeles to Orlando and from New York to Cleveland. It began as a low, almost inaudible murmur in the late 1990s and has grown ever louder with each passing day. It’s the sound of the last gasping breath of those unable to adapt to a changing world. It’s the sound of irrelevance.

Today, newspapers are struggling to keep up with the evolving needs of a next-generation audience. According to one estimate gathered online, more than 10,000 newsroom jobs – that’s 40 jobs per day – have been cut in 2008 alone. With more than a dozen newspapers announcing new layoffs in just the past month, this ominous trend shows no signs of slowing down.

Erica Smith of Graphic Designr.net has created a great map that tracks the swath of destruction from coast to coast. It’s such a significant indicator of what’s to come for traditional journalists that other Websites dedicated to chronicling this new-media-driven sea change have sprung up as well.

But what may be the most telling sign that print journalism is going the way of the dinosaur is that print reporters themselves are even admitting that the end is near. In summing up what new media is doing to the newspaper business, veteran journalist Paul Gillin – author of the must read The New Influencers: A Marketers Guide to the New Social Media – simply said, “Newspapers can not turn this around. It is over.”

However, as with some species on the path to extinction, a rare few are able to evolve, meet modernity’s needs, and grow stronger in times of crisis. This is the case with the Washington Post. The storied house that literally wrote the book on investigative journalism in the 1970’s – breaking the Watergate scandal and sealing the fate of President Nixon – is now embarking on an aggressive effort to engage the social media realm.

Sources inside the Post have shared with this blog that engaging social media audiences has become a top priority at the paper. Everyone knows that Chairman Don Graham is extremely active on Facebook – he’s got nearly 1,000 online friends listed. But many may not know that he and Post Executive Editor Len Downie are strongly encouraging all editors and reporters to follow their Chairman’s example.

As such, reporters are posting notes from stories that don’t fit into the newspaper or Web versions of their articles on their Facebook pages. They are linking to past stories that they are especially proud of and driving more traffic to the Post’s Website. And they are soliciting and answering readers’ questions to develop closer relationships with their audience.

To its credit, the Post has realized that the power of Facebook cannot be denied. With more than 90 million active users spending an average of nearly 30 minutes on Facebook each day, no modern marketing or information gathering strategy is complete without an integrated Facebook and social networking engagement plan.

The Post is joining the conversation – having recognized (not a minute too soon) that social media offer the best opportunity to build the paper’s brand. If its industry is to survive, others must take a page from the Post’s online playbook and engage the next generation whether they’re ready or not.

I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation with the thousands of citizen journalists that will be attending the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas this weekend. See you there.