Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the immediate future of the paper is still unclear.
"I really don't know whether we'll be printing The Times in five years, and you know what?" he asked. "I don't care either."
Today's newspapers are facing new competitors on all fronts. The news-gathering side is under attack with Internet and cable sources popping up all over the place.
Cable TV is driven by demands of both informing viewers just tuning in and retaining those who have been watching for a few hours already.
But quality reporting has implications beyond how we choose to consume our news. Russia provides an example of what can happen when reporting falls by the wayside, and the picture doesn't look pretty.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has the highest approval rating of any leader in the developed world. He consolidated political power, used it to build up loyal allies and then consolidated economic power under those allies. But the key to his success has been a degradation in Russia's press that reached critical mass in 1996.
Then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin's popularity was in the single digits with only months left before elections. Yeltsin pressured the media into praising his administration, allowing him to capture the majority quickly while other leaders looked away.
With that amazing swing, the press was defined as a tool to be used by politicians.
Well-functioning news media serve as a fourth branch of government, a check and balance against power disorders in the political and economic spheres that threaten our pluralist stability. Luckily, it looks like other forms of media are picking up the slack.
The increased focus on transparency has combined with the online revolution to make most data available on the Internet. This is where blogs and other sources come in. Though they might not have the high-level access to one-on-one interviews, they have thousands - if not millions - of eyes looking at documents and statements.
Blog writers broke stories ranging from Dan Rather's accidental use of forged documents to former Congressman Mark Foley's online relationships with former pages. Blogs are even a growing source of news in Russia, trying to fill the gap left by governmental control over broadcast media.
Even if all that fails, Sulzberger has plans for The New York Times to survive the transition to a digital age. For a year or two, a special team has been working inside his company to investigate how best to deliver the news in everything from laptops to cell phones.
Here's to hoping he succeeds.
Greg Brown is a junior in philosophy. Please send your comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.
