In its January/February issue an article in the Atlantic entitled ‘End Times’ suggested a scenario where traditional media brands die out completely. What if highly-revered brands could not make the leap, when the time comes to go entirely digital, it asked.

“What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if The New York Times goes out of business- like, this May?,” Michael Hirschorn wrote.

Now the New York Times responds (published in full on the Poyntor Online Forum).

“Your article ‘End Times,’ which speculates on whether The New York Times can survive the death of journalism, leaves a lot to be desired from the standpoint of… well, journalism,” writes Catherine Mathis from SVP, Corporate Communications.

“It’s not unusual that a journalist calls the subject of a piece before actually publishing the article or column. In fact, in some areas of journalism that’s standard practice. We wish that had happened with this story. We could have helped. Here are some of the things we would have told you.”

Read the NYTimes.com’s ‘things’ here.