I think that we're heading in that direction whether we like it or not. The classic newspaper is in essence a "middleman" between writers and readers who makes

I think that we're heading in that direction whether we like it or not. The classic newspaper is in essence a "middleman" between writers and readers who makes money by picking writers who will be popular and selling ad space. Whether or not there are publishers or an audience, there will always be writers -- it's the middleman who is being rendered unnecessary. We're seeing the same phenomena in the music industry and television, and it happened in radio long ago (which is why most radio content is completely disposable, public radio being the exception). What does the end-game look like? Probably something like Google News or the App Store. It's possible that entities such as the New Yorker or the NY Times or The Economist can survive if they figure out how to switch from their middleman model to a "make good stuff and sell it to people" model, but it's problematic -- switching business models is very hard.