The media -- is dying!

Proclaiming "no one can keep up" with the amount of change happening in the media industry, a cadre of 15 anonymous communicators started a Twitter feed to help fellow insiders stay up to date on the media industry's hirings & firings.

The account — aptly called "The Media is Dying" — attracted nearly 6,500 subscribers in the three weeks it's been up and running.

336 updates exist so far, ranging from corporate news like "CHICAGO DAILY HERALD layoffs begin today — double digit expected" to updates about specific journalists, such as "Betsy Sharkey is a new film critic at THE LA TIMES."

The original purpose of the feed was to apprise PR professionals to the transitions of journalists to different publications. "If you’re pitching a story, you’ve got to know where people are," pointed out New York PR agent David Parmet (via Ragan.com).

But other journalists, online publishers, and people interested in social media and consulting have also begun watching the feed, alert for news that might concern them. Updates about corporate buyouts or layoffs are is taken with a grain of salt, and any post that cannot be confirmed is labeled a "RUMOR."

And while rumors flare up quickly, news that is real is considered "breaking." Reports of layoffs at Adweek and Brandweek, for example, appeared on Twitter before they made it to traditional media sites, The New York Times observes.