Given the constant erosion of the printed press, do you see the New York Times still being printed in five years?

"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either," he says. Sulzberger is focusing on how to best manage the transition from print to Internet. "The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we're leading there," he points out.

The Times, in fact, has doubled its online readership to 1.5 million a day to go along with its 1.1 million subscribers for the print edition. 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. Asked if local papers have a future, Sulzberger points out that the New York Times is not a local paper, but rather a national one based in New York that enjoys more readers from outside, than within, the city.

Classifieds have long been a major source of income to the press, but the business is moving to the Internet. Sulzberger agrees, but what papers lose, Web sites gain. Media groups can develop their online advertising business, he explains. Also, because Internet advertising doesn't involve paper, ink and distribution, companies can earn the same amount of money even if it receives less advertising revenue.

Really? What about the costs of development and computerization?

"These 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."

Zheng, a prolific Internet writer and poet, has been imprisoned since December 3 after writing articles critical of the Communist Party and Chinese government policy.

Zheng's trial lasted less than three hours and was attended by high-level authorities of northeast China's Liaoning Province, his brother Zheng Xiaochun told CPJ. Prosecutors cited 63 articles written by the journalist, and listed the titles of several essays in which he called for political reform, increased capitalism in China, and an end to the practice of imprisoning writers.

Zheng Yichun's defense lawyer Li Mingchang entered a guilty plea but argued that his client's writings are protected under Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press. Li said that this constitutional protection should outweigh charges of subversion brought under Article 105 of Chinese criminal law. He asked the court to consider the light sentence given last summer to Du Daobin, another Internet journalist who was charged with inciting subversion.

"I am an independent intellectual and my freedom is protected under the Chinese constitution," Zheng Yichun told the court, according to his brother. "If I committed a crime, I was not conscious of it. ... I am a patriot. ... I hope that the government will give me a chance."