Media Death March: Seattle P-I Stops Printing, Goes All-In Online

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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer publishes its last dead-tree edition Tuesday, the latest newspaper to succumb to the harsh realities of an internet economy where delivering bits is an increasingly inefficient way of delivering the news.

News of the P-I's decision to publish online only was telegraphed for weeks, and it follows the decision of the Rocky Mountain News to shutter completely, the Christian Science Monitor to publish online only starting next month and deep concessions by staff at another Hearst newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, to keep that newspaper afloat.

The owners put the newspaper up for sale on Jan. 9 and said they would shut it down if a buyer did not step forward. With a daily circulation of 117,000 the Seattle P-I is the largest daily to cease paper publication. The Christian Science Monitor is in 50k territory.

"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."

(continue reading on Epicenter)

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Comments

Anonymous said…
While going online doesn't seem like a bad thing in itself (actually could be a great opportunity and spare some trees too), I do think it's a sad reflection on the difficulties of working out viable models (financial) for good journalism.
5:38 PM
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