The new issue of The Atlantic Magazine has the best article I've read to date about the passing away of old media and what the new media world is going to look like. The piece, titled End Times, by Michael Hirschorn, details the near death predicament the New York Times finds itself in and in an enlightening passage at the end of the article, predicts what journalism will morph into in the very near future.  

Regarding the Times, Hirschorn noted, "With more than $1 billion in debt already on the books, only $46 million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good... Regardless of what happens over the next few months, The Times is destined for significant and

traumatic change. At some point soon — sooner than most of us think — the print edition, and with it The Times as we know it, will no longer exist." Hirschorn said the end could come this year, even as early as May when The Times has $400 million in debt coming due. 

So what will the reporting profession look like when the "newspaper of record" is gone (along with dozens of others also facing the guillotine)? Hirschorn wrote, "...journalistic outlets will discover that the Web allows (okay, forces) them to concentrate on developing expertise in a narrower set of issues and interests, while helping journalists from other places and publications find new audiences."

"In this scenario, NYTmes.com would begin to resemble a bigger, better, and less partisan version of the Huffington Post, which, until  

someone smarter or more deep-pocketed comes along, is the prototype for the future of journalism: a healthy dose of aggregation, a wide range of contributors, and a growing offering of original reporting. This combination has allowed the HuffPo to digest the news that matters most to its readers at minimal cost, while it focuses resources in the highest-impact areas. What the HuffPo does not have, at least not yet, is a roster of contributors who can set agendas, conduct in-depth investigations, or break high-level news. But the post-print Times still would."

I found Hirschorn's closing comments to be especially compelling as I see things playing out in the same way he does, particularly his vision of the top writers emerging stronger than ever in the web based media world. 

Hirschorn opined, "The best journalists will survive, and eventually thrive. Some will be snapped up by an expanding HuffPo (which is raising millions while its print competitors tank) and by the inevitable competitors that will spring up to imitate its business model, or even by smaller outlets, like Talking Points Memo, which have found that keeping their overhead low allows them to profit from high-quality journalism. And some will succeed as independent operators. Figures like Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman and Andrew Ross  

Sorkin (the editor of the DealBook business blog, which has been a cash cow for The Times) would be worth a great deal on the open market. For them and others, the bracing experience of becoming “brands of one” could prove intoxicating, and perhaps more profitable than fighting as part of a union for an extra percentage-point raise in their next contract."