Just days after the struggling-news-sites-are-doomed meme made yet [another][5] [tired][6] [circuit][7] through the webernets, Time has [announced that it will stop printing Life magazine][4]. The "iconic photography magazine," as Reuters refers to it, has been published since 1936 with one interruption from 1972-1978.

But print mags dying off to live again online isn't really news, it's progress (and welcome progress if you happen to be a tree slated for the wood pulper), the real news in Time's announcement is that Life's collection of 10 million images will be made available online, for free for personal use.

Time says that more than 97 percent of the collection has never been seen by the public and includes pictures by [Alfred Eisenstaedt][1], [Margaret Bourke-White][2], [Gordon Parks][3] and other twentieth century luminaries.

The last issue of Life will hit stands April 20th, but so far no word on when the Life image archive will be online. 

[4]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2007-03-26T162518Z_01_N26366501_RTRUKOC_0_US-TIME-LIFE.xml&src=rss "Time to end LIFE magazine but keep it online"
[5]: http://doc.weblogs.com/2007/03/24#howToSaveNewspapers "How to Save Newspapers"
[6]: http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/03/24/troubleAtTheChronicle.html "Trouble at the Chronicle"
[7]: http://scobleizer.com/2007/03/24/newspapers-are-dead/ "Newspapers are dead"

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Eisenstaedt "Alfred Eisenstaedt"
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bourke-White "Margaret Bourke-White"
[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks "Gordon Parks"