JOSSIP IN-DEPTH — We pay a lot of lip service here to the idea that magazines and newspapers are a dying breed these days. But how can you not? It's no longer just a conceptual exercise, like "Oh, when the Internet really takes off and everyone buys a Kindle there will be no more need for paper journalism."

Since the stock markets have tanked, and as the automotive industry began stalling thanks to rising fuel prices and less discretionary income, meaning fewer big ad deals from GM and Chrysler, which means fewer ads in mags, yada yada yada, it's become increasingly apparent the push toward the future of magazines and papers wasn't going to be a technological development, but a financial one.

And no, it's not been great so far. Ad sales are down, overall readership is down, layoffs are up, and in some cases, publications are straight up folding. So goodbye, New York Sun, Radar, CosmoGIRL!, and 02138! Meanwhile, online news aggregators are popping up (Daily Beast!) and flourishing (Huffington Post!).

Nowadays, you'll have better luck starting a blog about the magazine industry's implosion than you would have trying to start up a title in today's climate.

So what are the glossies that are currently in danger? Here's our own suicide watch, and what drove these mags to the brink of extinction (besides the obvious lack of tasty ad dollars):

• Portfolio: Oh Portfolio. We might have missed you amid all the other drowning victims, but luckily you had the bells and whistles to get our attention. Dov Charney on the cover during the month you, as a business magazine, should have been covering the greatest financial crisis to ever hit the stocks?

Yeah, that's an indicator loud and clear that being a monthly is not, as editor Joane Lipman suggested, "a major benefit." If anything, it's a total liability to the Conde Nast publication, and a sore anachronistic thumb among a sea of more on-the-ball magazines which are also, coincidentally, failing. But at least they have better circulation sales than 15%.

• Newsweek/Time: The Washington Post Company, which owns Newsweek, had a net profit loss of 73% for the first half of 2008, down from $132 million to a paltry $36 million. Voluntary buyouts for editorial? Already happened, to the tune of $29.2 million. Time Magazine, Newsweek's number one competitor, is also having daddy troubles: Time Inc. is laying off 6% of their staff, or roughly 600 of their employees, while forcing some editorial staffers to work across multiple titles (a move we actually support). Time, though is looking towards "platforms other than print," while so far Newsweek's plan is to just try to power ahead like the little train that could. Unfortunately, print loyalty is not an asset these days, the ability to adapt is.

• Christian Science Monitor: This is a case of a daily becoming a weekly, not a good sign. If you've learned anything from Portfolio's downward spiral, it's that often=better in the publishing world. But with $18 million in losses and only $12.5 million in revenue this year, CSM is looking to expand their online initiatives, Radar/AMI-style, in conjunction with their weekly printing. Except look what happened to Radar. Conclusion: Going on the Internet is not a de facto way to save for your magazine. Unless you are Vice, and plan to build up a multimedia brand (like VBS) that's more than just "we put our magazine online!"

• Blackbook: Suffers from the opposite problem of Christian Science Monitor. Blackbook works too well as a website; its print edition becomes redundant. And to once again invoke the dreaded R-word, Radar was a better website than it ever was a mag, and the money lost to costly print budgets, and the focus on page-oriented (instead of web-oriented) ad space is why now the blog is now owned by AMI. Blackbook would do well to keep this in mind when deciding where to put their ads, and money.

So are any titles coming out ahead in the game? Like we've mentioned: Food magazines are doing well, the theory being that people stay at home and cook more when there is less money and dining out becomes too expensive.

Men's Health and Women's Health have also done pretty well of late, and so have many doctor/disease treatment magazines. Want to know why? Because friggin' pharmaceutical companies make up the ad pages of titles like Diabetes Digest, and those guys aren't going to run out of money any time soon. You know, unless that "foregoing prescriptions to pay the rent" trend continues. Or we get socialized health care.