The New York Times’ (NYSE: NYT) futurist-in-residence Michael Rogers is leaving the company after two years..he came in to NYT in September 2006, as an R&D consultant with a fancy name and a fixed tenure of about a year, which got extended a year after. This then was part of the Times’ emphasis on R&D, including the hiring of Michael Zimbalist as VP heading its R&D unit. He is now leaving, Portfolio reports, and going back to consulting. No word yet on whether the Times will replace him. As for some lessons after pondering over the future of newspapers, he tell Portfolio: “I think probably the most interesting thing that emerged from a lot of the research I helped with was just how hard it’s going to be to replace paper…I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, and the longer I do it the more it seems like a really good medium that’s going to be around for quite a while longer.” As for NYT’s own future, “I think the Times is doing more than most any other media company I’ve worked with in the past,” he said. For a peek at some of the futuristic products NYT is working on, see this previous post.