and the RATS, take another one in the.................................HA ha!!!
Posted on 01/08/2009 6:03:45 PM PST by Publius
KING 5 news has learned that Seattle may soon become a one newspaper town.
Like many newspapers across America the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been struggling to survive.
Now, a source close to the deal tells KING 5 that the paper's owner, Hearst Corporation, will announce as soon as tomorrow that it's putting the P-I up for sale. Under the joint operating agreement between the P-I and The Seattle Times, the P-I must be offered for sale for at least 30 days before it can cease operation.
The joint operating agreement was formed in 1983 in an effort to keep both papers healthy. The P-I was granted a monopoly on morning publication. At that time The Seattle Times was one of the only profitable afternoon papers in the country.
But in 1999 the joint operating agreement was modified to allow the Times to begin publishing in the morning. Critics predicted that would eventually lead to the demise of the P-I.
We're told Hearst does not expect another buyer to step forward and that Seattle will likely become a one newspaper town within the next few months.
A call to the Seattle P-I publisher's office for comment has not yet been returned.
It would be the end of an era -- the P-I put out its first edition in 1863 and was the city's first newspaper.
It's unclear how this will affect The Seattle Times or the Blethen family, which owns 51 percent of that paper.
Hearst’ motto:
‘Running papers into the ground for 70 years.’
I beg to disagree. The PI was a great paper. Its passing is to be lamented. At one time it was available nearly statewide, even 200 miles east where it competed with the Spokane paper, and 150 miles south where it competed with the Oregonian. That it was not a beacon of conservative thought did not diminish its utility to any great degree. It had a great sports section, and a great website, which I hoped was profitable for its continuance, but apparently not so. I believe it was killed by the internet, Craigslist, TV, and general illiteracy(as a result of the dumbing down of public schools). Anyway I was a PI paperboy in 1957 and have been a reader, but not necessarily a subscriber, all my life. If I want conservative there is always the WSJ editorial page, Rush Limbaugh, and FreeRepublic.
For decades newspapers have apparently believed they were somehow insulated from economic reality because they were "so important", or so their journalism professors told them. When a business ignores (or even ridicules) its customer base it deserves to fail.
Interesting point. All those big city newspapers, in epicenters where liberalism has trashed the school system. A far sighted newpaperman would have realized that higher and higher rates of illiteracy would be bad for business, if not for our democracy. A decades long decline.
In this light, newspapers were part of the problem not part of the solution. Are you aware of any newspaper crusading for literacy and holding the feet of their school board to the fire?
Of course, you are being sarcastic since most of us here read plenty of news on the internet where there’s a chance of seeing two sides of an issue.
The cartoonist Horsey is the only reason for that paper to exist. I’m sure he can find a job.
The PI has its own self to blame for its demise.
Not just Horsey. Joel Connelly is a disgrace. I’m glad to see them go.
No more vitriolic editorials penned by D. Parvaz? How will I cope?
I’ll drink to that! What a vile rag — I wouldn’t miss it a bit.
It does make me wonder how well a paper could do if it actually did NEWS (what a concept). We’re over on the east side of the state and our “paper” is just as vile. I ditched it years ago and never looked back. They called once to try to get us back and I said “no thanks”. They asked why and I said “it’s biased, doesn’t agree with my world view at all, and contains very little NEWS”. They said “you want me to pass that along to the editors?”. I said “if you think it’ll do any good”. End of story.
Insulting roughly 1/2 of your potential customers (readers AND advertizers) will sink any company, and now they are finally paying for their arrogance.
One down, one to go.
David Horsey is an incredibly talented artist; but he really needs someone to help him come up with ideas. His cartoons are possibly the least clever editorial cartoons I’ve ever seen, and yet he manages to win Pulitzers based on his artistic ability alone. The fact that he’s a knee-jerk lefty doesn’t help either.
The McClatchy owned rags (Tacoma) News Tribune, Bellingham Herald, Tri City Herald and the Olympian will probably break apart on the rocks by years end. Stock symbol MNI, they were in the $70 range in 2005, 70 cent range a couple weeks ago, about $1.40 today.
I liked Horsey’s recent Hamas cartoon. But he really couldn’t compare to Eric Devericks in my opinion. Maybe if the PI goes under the Times will bring him back.
Ron Simms continuing to show the people of Washington that he is an idiot.
BTW, in that picture, he kind of resembles a black Al Franken.
Heh!
Wouldn't that be an awakening. He really needs to brush his teeth more if he's going to make sucky faces in public.
I recall early in the Iraq thing I wrote an angry letter to one of their columnists over his "It's Vietnam Again - Break Out The Signs!" piece and he wrote me back critiquing my letter as if he were an English instructor. Funniest thing I ever read, mostly because (1) the critique itself was illiterate, and (2) he couldn't live up to his own standards if he tried.
Pity about the sports section, though. I really like Art Thiel.
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