Now that we have contenders for “Most 2009 Headline of the Year (So Far),” how about this, from WWD, for “Most 2009 Story Kicker of the Year (So Far)”?

Portfolio’s demise was first confirmed on its own Web site by its media blogger, Jeff Bercovici, who was told by his editor to post it. Around that time, rumors had already surfaced on blogs like Business Insider and Dow Jones’ All Things D. “Still,” said Bercovici, “I got the Drudge link.”

At least Bercovici got the Drudge link. (On second thought: Maybe “I got the HuffPo link” would be more 2009?)

UPDATE: Somewhat counter to Tina Brown’s “press coverage of Portfolio was relentlessly snotty. No one eats their young (or themselves) more hungrily than journalists” (true enough) generalization: a tweet yesterday from the New York Times’s David Carr: “Working Portfolio story for broader implications, but sort of stuck on the one: More talented journos on the street. Bercovici is a wonder.”