In the latest example that newspapers everywhere are hatin’ life, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is publishing its last print edition today and will move to an exclusively web-based format from here on out – a move that will cut the paper’s staff from 165 to 20 and shave millions off of its operating costs.
The PI‘s parent company, the ubiquitous Hearst, is doing its best to put a good spin on things, citing the market research they’ll be able to do in the wake of the paper edition shutting down.
From the New York Times (a paper which at the moment you can still pick up and hold in your hands):
“We clearly believe we are in a period of innovation and experimentation, and that’s what this new SeattlePI.com represents,” said Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst’s newspaper division. “We think we’ll learn a lot, and we think the Seattle market, being so digitally focused, is a great place to try this.”
Actually, newspapers are in a period of getting their asses kicked.
This move comes just two weeks after Denver’s Rocky Mountain News was forced to close up shop after 150 years, and as media conglomerates across the country are axing former Obama sycophants like a bad horror movie.
Again, what can we say … it’s those crazy kids and their damned “blobs.”
By Mike March 17, 2009 at 11:22 am
Of course, yet another unsaid, “elephant in the room” kinda aspect of this whole transition away from traditional newspapers is the fact that the vast majority of the reporters and editors are decidedly to the left in their political leanings. The old MSM infrastructure was very conducive to the propagation (or at least the partial concealment) of their ideals; the new media- not so much.
My guess is that newspapers, per se, will not totally disappear in the short to medium term. Rather, they’ll just consolidate down to a much smaller footprint as part of the newer, more varied news distribution marketplace. I doubt there will be too many “two-newspaper towns” by the time this all shakes out, and some of the one-paper towns may get folded into a larger, regional paper as well. Not entirely a bad thing, just different.
By Bo Diddley March 17, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I see where the Charleston Post & Courier is going up on their daily price from 50 to 75 cent. I thought the price of everything was supposed to be goin down?