• Fortune, Monday, February 25, 2008 11 AM

On the eve of Netscape's official demise, its co-founder Marc Andreessen, who sold the company to AOL in 1998 for $4.2 billion, points to another failing business: The New York Times. He notes on his blog: "I hereby inaugurate my New York Times Deathwatch, which will continue until the last Sulzberger has left the building."

Andreessen passionately believes The New York Times and other newspapers are only delaying the inevitable. "When you have an obsolete, inconvenient physical product that nobody wants in an era of universal online access, the appropriate strategy is clearly to raise the price," he snipes. And he's not alone. Recently, a coalition of hedge funds bought 10 percent of the company and wants to install four of its own candidates to the board.

So what should the Grey Lady do? Kill the print product immediately, cut the fat and publish a base line of news online only-with social networking features. "Take acute pain now in order to avoid years of chronic pain," he says.

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