As several Christian magazines succumb to the ongoing collapse of print media, Newsweek‘s Lisa Miller wonders if the days of a distinctly Christian media have come and gone:

The real interest here, though, is more than merely economic. TCW‘s [Today’s Christian Woman‘s] death signals something much bigger: an end in America to the perceived separation between the secular and the evangelical worlds. Not 10 years ago, the conventional wisdom as reflected in much of the mass media held that evangelical Christians led completely separate lives from everyone else.

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Now, though, Christian and inspirational stories are widely available in secular places. ORedbook andGood Housekeeping regularly run the kinds of articles that TCW once considered its bread and butter. On her Web site, Oprah currently features an interview with Queen Rania of Jordan, in which the queen says that she and her husband strive to raise their children “like any other family.” “The most important thing,” she says, “is to instill [in your children] the right values.” Barnes & Noble and Borders—not to mention Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart—carry a wide variety of Christian and inspirational books, magazines and music. Even the most committed Christians no longer have to shop only at Christian stores or buy only Christian media. “I don’t shop at a Christian bookstore,” admits Ginger Kolbaba, the current editor of TCW. “Not when I can go online.”

Even more important, evangelical Christians are less willing to identify themselves as a coherent group embodying one set of values. As a result, it seems Christians are more willing to take their parenting and relationship advice from secular sources. “This next generation, they can read a marriage magazine or a parenting magazine and filter it through their Christian world view without saying, ‘I need Today’s Christian Marriage or Today’s Christian Woman,'” says Don Pape, publisher of trade books for David C. Cook, a Christian publishing firm.

Read the entire article here.