Hearst's Seattle Post-Intelligencer to shut print shop

17 March 2009

The unprecedented media downturn in the US has claimed yet another casualty – the venerable Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the city's oldest newspaper, has downed shutters on its print edition. From today, it will be the largest daily newspaper in the US to shift to an entirely digital news product only be available on the internet.

Hearst Corp, which owns the 146-year-old P-I, said yesterday that it had failed to find a buyer for the paper. The development was widely expected since 9 January, when Hearst executives said they would put the paper up for sale for 60 days. However, no buyer has emerged during this period. (See: Hearst looking for buyer for Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper)

"Tonight will be the final run, so let's do it right," publisher Roger Oglesby is reported to have told the newsroom. The front page of the final edition featured a headline saying 'You've meant the world to us' and a photo of the 30-foot neon globe atop the P-I's building, which has a slogan rotating around the equator saying, 'It's in the P-I'.

Steven R Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, said the online P-I would not just be "a newspaper online – ''It's an effort to craft a new type of digital business with a robust, community news and information Website at its core."

Hearst said the online edition will include some of the newspaper's well-known contributors. However, the vast majority of the P-I's 167 employees, almost all in the news department, are expected to lose their jobs. The online enterprise will have a significantly smaller news staff.
The P-I had 181 employees, but managing editor David McCumber told Reuters that the Website would only employ about 20 in the newsroom operations and another 20 to sell ads. He said he would not be working on the new site.

Hearst's move to end the print edition leaves the P-I's larger rival, The Seattle Times, as the only mainstream daily in the city. The Times plans to deliver a copy of the newspaper to every P-I subscriber on Wednesday morning, spokeswoman Jill Mackie said.