The Future of the News

The reports coming in from American newsrooms are ominous: budget cuts, staff layoffs, rollbacks in reporting and falling circulation, with a slump that's hitting newspapers and newsmagazines alike. Meanwhile, more and more former readers are migrating to the web, clicking their news online, downloading podcasts and videos onto their iPods and personal cell phones. Anyway you look at it, there's a seismic shake-up in the world of print journalism. Is Google replacing Time magazine? Does the New York Times really have to compete with the Drudge Report? Are American newspapers doomed? Will they be replaced by online publications? Or is this much to do about nothing? (An extended version of this discussion was originally broadcast earlier today on To the Point.) Marc Cooper guest hosts.