America's once proud family of big-city newspapers suffered another series of fatalities in recent days, with Seattle's Post-Intelligencer, Denver's Rocky Mountain News, and Minneapolis' Star Tribune announcing they were shutting down unless rescued by wealthy investors. Even more stunning was The Gray Lady herself—the venerable New York Times—requiring a $260 million infusion of cash from Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico's zillionaire telecom magnate, to stave off a rising tide of red ink.

The big three newsweeklies aren't faring much better. U.S. News & World Report is now essentially a website. Newsweek is losing money. Time has disclosed a loss of nearly one million subscribersers.

The decline of print journalism is not new information, the primary culprits including the demographic and technological shifts to 24/7 cable and Internet news sources, the loss of classified advertising to upstarts like Craig's List, and, perhaps, a fatigue with the left-leaning bent of many newsrooms. So, while today's news executives understand the future (and present) of their business is online, they haven't figured out how to make money in a space where so much competing content is free.

So, where's all this headed?

• Print media won't disappear altogether but general audience papers and newsmagazines may, as readers seek publications that more narrowly reflect their political, economic and social sensibilities.
• The distinction between print and television reporters will shrink as more newspaper and magazine reporters bring a video camera to their interviews and post them on the publication's website
• Reporters will increasingly work across multiple platforms—publishing stories, blogging, shooting video, writing opinion-pieces and, then, appearing on TV to talk about it. Individual reporter "brands"—think Bob Woodward, Anderson Cooper, Christopher Hitchens, or Jeffrey Toobin—will eclipse the media outlets they ostensibly work for.
• The actual news-gathering process—sending reporters into the field—will be farmed out to freelancers (it already is) or simply grabbed off YouTube et al., with desk-bound "reporters" adding analysis and insight.

As long as education levels remain high, so will the demand for the written word. But with newspapers falling like bowling pins and newsmagazines in full retreat, fewer reporters will be ferreting out stories—and those who are will be less experienced, under-resourced and under greater pressure to produce something scandalous. Indeed, those of us enjoying the spectacle of the once omnipotent New York Times begging for cash may one day yearn for the time when its far-reaching news bureaus could be relied on to deliver a first-hand view of what is truly happening in the world.