as we contemplated the end of our contract with the Beast at the end of 2012, we faced a decision. As usual, we sought your input and the blogosphere’s - hence the not-terribly subtle thread that explored whether online readers will ever pay for content, and how. The answer is: no one really knows. But as we debated and discussed that unknowable future, we felt more and more that getting readers to pay a small amount for content was the only truly solid future for online journalism. And since the Dish has, from its beginnings, attempted to pioneer exactly such a solid future for web journalism, we also felt we almost had a duty to try and see if we could help break some new ground. The only completely clear and transparent way to do this, we concluded, was to become totally independent of other media entities and rely entirely on you for our salaries, health insurance, and legal, technological and accounting expenses.

Andrew Sullivan strikes out on his own. nwktumblr crew is wishing him nothing but the best.

When you have divided the world into two categories - freedom or tyranny - and there is no ground whatever between them, you are not only among the least intelligent commentators out there; you also have to be completely fanatical even in the face of popular repudiation.

Andrew Sullivan watched Fox News on election night.

What amazes me is that watching some of the commentary after the debate, the fact that Romney just abandoned almost every position he has taken on foreign policy and agreed with the president’s moderate conservatism was taken as a smart move. Not a blatant, outrageous, cynical series of bald-faced lies.

Andrew Sullivan is mystified how Romney has completely flipped on his foreign policy positions.

Look: I chose digital over print 12 years ago, when I shifted my writing gradually online, with this blog and now blogazine. Of course a weekly newsmagazine on paper seems nuts to me. But it takes guts to actually make the change. An individual can, overnight. An institution is far more cumbersome. Which is why, I believe, institutional brands will still be at a disadvantage online compared with personal ones. There’s a reason why Drudge Report and the Huffington Post are named after human beings. It’s because when we read online, we migrate to read people, not institutions. Social media has only accelerated this development, as everyone with a Facebook page now has a mini-blog, and articles or posts or memes are sent by email or through social networks or Twitter.

And as magazine stands disappear as relentlessly as bookstores, I also began to wonder what a magazine really is. Can it even exist online? It’s a form that’s only really been around for three centuries - and it was based on a group of people associating with each other under a single editor and bound together with paper and staples.

Andrew Sullivan on the end of Newsweek’s print existence, and the beginning of its all-digital life.

To my mind, Obama dominated Romney tonight in every single way: in substance, manner, style, and personal appeal. He came back like a lethal, but restrained predator. He was able to defend his own record, think swiftly on his feet, and his Benghazi answer was superb. He behaved luke a president. He owned the presidency. And Romney? Well, he has no answers on the math question and was exposed. He was vulnerable on every social issue, especially immigration. And he had no real answer to the question of how he’d be different than George W Bush.

I’m excitable - but sometimes politics is about emotion as well as reason. And my view is that Obama halted Romney’s momentum in its tracks and his performance will bring women voters in particular flooding back. He’s just more persuasive. On watching with the sound off - apart from weird gaps in the CSPAN coverage - Obama did not grin like Biden; he smiled confidently, leaning forward. Within twenty minutes, Romney looked flush and a little schvitzy.

Game, set and match to Obama. He got it; he fought back; he gave us all more than ample reason to carry on the fight.

That’s Andrew Sullivan on tonight’s debate.

Our colleague Andrew Sullivan is freaking out—in gifs!

My favorite thing about Manhattan has always been - from my first visit in 1984 - walking the city. I used to walk from the Frick all the way down to TriBeCa, PSBs in my ear-plugs, and just absorbing this glorious mess of humanity block by block, street by street, store-window by store-window. And the hottest men on the planet.

Andrew Sullivan on life in New York City.

Andrew Sullivan is hosting a live Q&A about his Newsweek cover story: Is Barack Obama the Democrats’ Ronald Reagan? Come join the chat!

Pretty cool opportunity for political junkies looking for a break into journalism: Andrew Sullivan is looking for two “dishterns” to work on his blog. But a word of caution! You really should be familiar with the Dish and all they do there before applying for this one.  Sullivan lays it all out:

The Dish is seeking two interns to help with ransacking the web for smart nuggets, helping out with administrative crap, working on larger projects, and guest-blogging when yours truly takes a vacation. The paid internship will be full time, includes benefits and is for a six-month duration. For the first time, the positions are based in New York City, at the iPod-looking super-cool Gehry-designed IAC building.

We are hoping to hire within the next month or so. Start dates are semi-flexible. We’re looking for extremely hardworking self-starters, web-obsessives and Dishheads, who already understand what we do here. We also prefer individuals who can challenge me and my assumptions, find stuff online that we might have missed, and shape the Dish with his or her own personal passions. I want to emphasize that the Beast’s “balls-to-the-wall” aspiration is just as relevant to the Dish; these are intense jobs for the intensely motivated. They’re also a pretty unbeatable opportunity to learn what online journalism can be. And a sense of humor is an asset.

To apply, please e-mail a (max 500-word) cover letter explaining why you are a good fit for the Dish and a resumé to Dish.Intern@newsweekdailybeast.com. The cut off for applications is Monday, May 21.

Bonus: you’ll wind up working close to us nwktumblrs. So there’s that.

Andrew Sullivan writes this week’s cover story on the crisis in Christianity in America, which has been overrun and destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Sullivan’s argument? Ditch all that and just follow Jesus. Here’s an excerpt:

We inhabit a polity now saturated with religion. On one side, the Republican base is made up of evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life. On the other side, the last Democratic primary had candidates profess their faith in public forums, and more recently President Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast, invoking Jesus to defend his plan for universal health care. The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in a religious space and reasonable in a political one has atrophied before our eyes.

Keep reading!

[Photo: Brooks Kraft / Corbis]