They're shutting down the reactor
It looks like the news is finally getting around. Google Reader is doomed.
This should sound familiar. It was only a matter of time. When internal corporate priorities shift, sooner or later, things are going to get the axe. There are now a whole bunch of users who are about to be permanently left in the lurch and who need to start chasing down alternatives.
Personally, my solution was to just sit down one night and write my own. It took a while to get it fine-tuned to handle the variety of existing feeds, but it was time well spent. According to my changelog, I haven't had to do anything to fred's source code since November. I put in the work once and now it pays off every day.
Do I want to write replacements for every single thing I use? No, not really. However, the alternative of having to hop around every time someone changes things really stinks.
I'd rather operate on my schedule, not theirs.