NYT pub Arthur Sulzberger suggests that the debate over how far online newspapers must go is over in an interview with Haaretz.com. He sees his job as shepherding the times onto the Internet while maintaining profit margins - and "I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either."

Sulzberger says the New York Times is on a journey that will conclude the day the company decides to stop printing the paper. That will mark the end of the transition. It's a long journey, and there will be bumps on the road, says the man at the driving wheel, but he doesn't see a black void ahead.

Newspapers can maintain an online business by driving towards the obvious advantages of online classifed advertising. While there's more competition for such ads, the Internet is also a massively cheaper platform than print.

"(Site development costs) aren't anywhere near what print costs," Sulzberger says. "The last time we made a major investment in print, it cost no less than $1 billion. Site development costs don't grow to that magnitude."

The Times cut a deal with Microsoft to create software that enables a decent reading experience on laptops.

Also, the Times signed a deal with Microsoft to distribute the paper through a software program called Times Reader, Sulzberger says. The software enables users to conveniently read the paper on screens, mainly laptops. "I very much believe that the experience of reading a paper can be transfered to these new devices."

Will it be free? No, Sulzberger says. If you want to read the New York Times online, you will have to pay.

All of this shows an understanding that the Times is only one player in a chorus of news reporting voices, from major to media to blogs.

"Once upon a time, people had to read the paper to find out what was going on in theater. Today there are hundreds of forums and sites with that information," he says. "But the paper can integrate material from bloggers and external writers. We need to be part of that community and to have dialogue with the online world."