I wrote about the fact that the P-I was for sale, and the possible upcoming demise of the Seattle Post Intelligencer a while back. As I noted at the time, being a Washington State native, I really hated to see the newsprint paper fold (goodness- that could certainly be a play-on-words). However, it hasn’t made a profit since 2000 – due to declining readership and advertising. The print version’s demise can’t be blamed entirely on the recession, although that was most likely what pushed to paper to the point where they had to make changes.
According to what I’ve read the last few days, the P-I is to continue as an online publication, with 20 to 25 employees. This certainly makes a lot of sense to me, as, like it or not, the Internet is where people are now going to get their news. With a couple dozen employees, the P-I should be able to do a great job. I plan to follow their progress closely.
Another positive thing about the P-I plans for their website is that this means that the wonderful online archives of the newspaper will remain intact. I find myself accessing it every now and then. The news doesn’t have to just disappear. Some papers haven’t figured this out yet, but I suspect that over time, they’ll get it. AP articles – and fairly recent New York Times articles seem to disappear from websites. This needs to change… But I’m getting off topic here. Just note that access to online historical information (and the papers certainly produce that) can be expected to get better as papers are forced to change their model to something profitable.
Dick Eastman posted a good article on the demise of the newspapers this morning. Check it out.
