When the going gets tough, there's a temptation to look to the Poynter Institute for leadership ideas.

Because as well as being an internationally-known media school, the operation which grew from a storefront in Florida's St Petersburg is also a hands-on newspaper publisher.

Last week its Tampa Bay Times announced a switch from daily to biweekly print publication - the first metro in the US to do so - and that some non-journalist staff would take "temporary" unpaid leave. The move comes five months after it laid off five journalists.

On the Poynter website, Paul Tash, who is the paper's chairman and chief executive as well as chairman of Poynter's board of trustees, talked about the decisions and their rationale.

Like other publishers globally, TBT is finding advertising revenue is down by half, while web traffic has more than doubled but Tash says the moves will make up "about half" of the gap. It will also be an opportunity to "gently guide" longstanding readers to digital formats.

The two remaining print days will have enhanced products including extra sections - one of which will carry a week's worth of games and puzzles - while news and features are being added to the digital paper.

As the COVID-19 crisis bites, Tash says all of the news operation is working remotely, although "there are some stories you just can't cover from your kitchen table". Circulation, customer service and some advertising staff are still coming in to the office, "but keeping their distance".

Tash says many organisations - not just newspapers - are facing wrenching changes, and that meeting those challenges will take "talent, commitment and ingenuity".

And flexibility: "A month ago, I would not have imagined what is now reality, so I am not especially confident about my ability to predict the future in another month, or two or three," he says.

One thing Poynter - which has a list on its website of the 22 organisations or individuals which have recently donated US$50,000 or more, among them Google and Facebook - has is fund raising, and this week it extended that to grassroots level.

Two charitable funds - one to support the newsroom and one for investigative journalism - have been launched to allow readers to make tax-deductible contributions, after "readers and neighbours" asked if they could help sustain the paper. And of course, there's the opportunity of sending a cheque to the non-profit Poynter Institute itself.

Peter Coleman