By Brian Lowry

Traditional media is experiencing what often feels like a slow-motion nervous breakdown, which would hardly come as news to anyone operating in the thick of that. Yet occasionally a week comes along with ostensibly distinct stories that help crystallize the larger picture, almost like the cop finally piecing things together at the end of “The Usual Suspects.”

In just the last few days, a handful of reports speak to trends that coalesce into a single clarifying moment: Old media is limping along on wobbly legs, if not its death bed yet, and efforts to save it are merely prolonging the inevitable.