Tech & Biz

Seattle P-I Newspaper to Close: "But the bloodline will live on"

by Jarrett Martineau | March 16, 2009 at 05:20 pm

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While their Denver counterparts at the now defunct Rocky Mountain News try to drum up pledge support for an online version of their newspaper, staffers at the soon-to-be-extinct Seattle Post-Intelligencer are readying themselves for the last print edition of their storied 146-year-old publication that will be published for the final time on Tuesday.

Hearst said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily paper to shift to an entirely digital news product. "Tonight we'll be putting the paper to bed for the last time," editor and publisher Roger Oglesby told a silent newsroom Monday morning. "But the bloodline will live on."

Ahead of the last print version of the paper, which comes after Hearst Corp. announced that the P-I — which is "Seattle's oldest business" — will cease publication this week, staff members are preparing to take the newspaper to an online-only format.

The company, however, said it would maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.

In the face of declining advertising revenues the paper hopes to be able to deliver a "leading news and information portal in the region" but there's no word yet on how this new, digital "community platform" will make money in order for its "bloodline" to "live on".

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Pythiian1

at 19:33 on March 16th, 2009

This is so sad about the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, but at least the online version is alive.

Thanks for this story.

Jordan Yerman

at 07:01 on March 17th, 2009

"Stop the presses" has a whole new meaning. The Seattle P-I is dead.... long live the Seattle P-I.

duo

at 21:41 on March 17th, 2009

Mainstream news online should beware of the fate of mainstream news print media. Citizens journalism is probably more read by this point because mainstream news is corporate owned and government controlled, whether in print, broadcast on television, or carried online. People are increasingly aware of this as they read fully verified news in citizens journalism cites that they never saw in mainstream news. The media bosses need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Mary Neal