New York Times FINAL EDITION

Thursday, 12 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

“CBS Taps Italian President Silvio Berlusconi to Replace Charlie Sheen in ‘Two and a Half Men.’” “From Pharma to Table: The McDonald’s-Pfizer Merger.” “Pope Reopens Trial of Galileo.” These are all headlines in today’s New York Times. Got your attention? So will the very funny and sadly, not entirely implausible, “last edition” of the paper.

If you haven’t figured it out thus far, thefinaledition.com is a parody site. But it hits pretty close to the belt. From the op-ed page we have offerings from the regulars: “Krugman: Is Krugman Too Big to Fail?”; “Friedman: My World is Flat Right Now”; “Kristof: I Need a Micro-Loan to Get Home.” And the navigation bar at the top looks almost identical to the real deal, despite a few humorous tweaks:

Even the names of reporters haven’t been spared a helping of mischief—Elliot Stewart, Sarah Jessica Parker-Pope, anyone? All the links work and lead to “real” articles that give the Onion a run for it’s money. And, for those who were wondering, there’s no paywall, so click around to your hearts desire.

They’ve even got a Timescast—the final one, mind you—delivered by Mike the Intern:

The Last Timescast from The Final Edition on Vimeo.