The New Republic to MSM: "It's Over"

(MoneyWatch)  Holy crap! It's one thing when those of us writing blogs predict the end of major newspapers and magazines, such as my colleagues and I here at Bnet Media have doing for the past year, but quite another when the print publications themselves join in the act.

In an essay entitled "MSM, RIP," and signed by "The Editors," one of our venerable journals, The New Republic, states flatly in its upcoming March 5th issue:

"Many venerable newspapers and magazines will close in the coming weeks and months; the ones that remain will be attenuated."

The magazine's editors do not seem to be basing their assessments so much on the fine print in major media companies' 10-Q reports, but on a loss of public suppor: "...the crisis in journalism is even deeper than the crisis in its business model. It is suffering a crisis of legitimacy."

Another essay in the upcoming issue of TNR, is by Paul Starr, who states his hypothesis in its title: "Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption)." The idea here, of course, is that the press keeps government and corporations accountable through its "watchdog" function -- something overlooked by those who anti-media sentiments are purely fueled by ideology, rather than historical analysis.

Meanwhile, over on Wall Street, with a couple hours left of trading, the handful of major newspaper stocks I checked were going down the toilet: The New York Times ($3.80/share); Gannett ($4.05); Lee ($.028); McClatchy ($0.53).