Seattle PI prints final edition in online transition Options

[brooklyneast05]

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Reporters, editors and photographers at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer prepared their final contributions to the paper, toasted one another with shots of Wild Turkey and packed up their desks in an "eerily clean" newsroom as the final edition of the paper went to the presses Monday night.

The paper published its final print edition Tuesday as the P-I makes a transformation into an online-only news outlet. A skeleton crew of 20 to 25 staffers will remain at the new Seattle PI.com while more than 140 staffers will lose their jobs.

"Its been an opportunity to experience your community first-hand," staff photographer Meryl Schenker said of her 13 years with the paper. "You meet people from all walks of life, and that's been a real privilege."

P-I journalists coming into the newsroom Monday morning were told by management that they would "put the paper to bed for the last time" that day. Other reporters and photographers on assignment when the news broke received texts about it from their colleagues.

The P-I is the largest paper to go under in an economic climate where newspapers are facing a steep drop in advertising revenues and readership. At the same time, newspapers are also forced to compete with Web sites that republish news stories but do not share the costs of producing them.

Last month, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, published its final edition after nearly 150 years. Last October, the Christian Science Monitor also announced that in 2009, it would replace its daily print edition with its Web site. It also offers subscribers weekly print and daily e-mail editions.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/16/pi.closes/index.html


man this sucks so bad to me. not specifically this seattle paper but just the whole thing in general. i do not want newspapers, magazines, ect to have to all go fully online. i hate the thought of that.

[mipadi]

As an aspiring journalist myself, I'm a bit disappointed, too. I wrote for a printed paper for four years, and worked as an editor for five semesters, while I was an undergrad. Some parts of the newspaper were online, but if you wanted the whole thing, you had to pick up a paper copy. And it was actually nice, sitting in a café with an actual piece of paper, rather than reading off of a computer screen. Plus it's a lot easier to do the crossword with paper and pencil (or pen, if you're really adventurous).

I have to use mass transit a lot, since I don't own a car; I also haven't bought into the notion that I need a wireless communication device like an iPhone with me at all times in order to stay in contact with the world, so it's nice to have a printed newspaper or magazine to read on the bus.

The sad thing is, this is likely to continue happening. People just aren't reading newspapers anymore (which is bad news for me, since none of the big papers are hiring new writers anymore, either). News is either online or broadcast (and I hate watching the news on television since most of it is bullshit, and I'd hate working in broadcasting even more -- but don't get me started on the ridiculousness that is 24-hour news networks), and more and more, people are turning to blogs to get their news. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging, but blogs aren't a good replacement for professional journalism.

I'm sad to hear about it, but I fear it's a trend that's only going to continue.