NYT Sunday mag revisited

This Sunday's NYT mag opens with letters from readers uniformly praising the redesign. Several point to the trees saved by the decision to shrink its size, but doesn't this beg the question of dropping print (on paper) altogether? I feel that we're on the brink of a new medium, to which the Kindle points, that will let this happen. If it does, what does this mean for the NYT itself? A possible analogy is the switch from the "studio system," where the talent was on the payroll, to today's project-based filmmaking, where studios are gathering places of freelance talent. The business model question that vexes the Times is just as pertinent to the talent that generates its content. Rupert Murdoch's assertion that people will pay for content may be true, but who will they pay - his company or the talent directly? A model from the past that may be relevant to this discussion is the publishing house that Mark Twain established, which gave authors a much bigger stake in their books' fortunes than was then customary (and rescued the family of General Grant from penury, owing to the success of his memoirs).