(Reuters) - Hearst Corp, one of the largest U.S. publishers, has offered some of its Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I) staff work in an online-only version of the paper, amidst speculation that the newspaper's print edition may be shutting down, according to media reports.

 

Two reporters said they received "provisional offers" and were told that they will be given formal offers if the website gets the go-ahead from Hearst's senior management, P-I reported on its website late on Thursday.

 

Hector Castro, a general assignment reporter, told P-I that he turned down the offer.

 

According to Castro, Hearst executive Ken Riddick said the publisher plans to start the site the day after the paper quits publishing. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times also reported that the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper is advancing plans to turn into an online-only publication.

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http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_hearst_pi

Official. Cripes.

 

SEATTLE - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska's gold fields, will print its final edition Tuesday and shift entirely to the Web.

 

Hearst Corp., which owns the 146-year-old P-I, said Monday that it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper, which it put up for a 60-day sale in January after years of losing money.

 

"Tonight will be the final run, so let's do it right," publisher Roger Oglesby told the newsroom.

 

Hearst's decision to abandon the print product in favor of an Internet-only version is the first for a large American newspaper, raising questions about whether the company can make money in a medium where others have come up short.

....

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090316/ap_on_hi_te/seattle_p_i

Reactions to the death of a once-wildly profitable 200-year old business model have been mixed. 

 

Some people equate newspapers with journalism and say that the end of newspapers is the end of civilization.  Others celebrate the creative destruction that has disintermediated gatekeepers and allowed sources to speak directly to readers.  Some shrug.  Some yawn.  Some yell.  Some cry.  Some have barely noticed.

A sampling:

 

A bright light in Seattle about to go out, Jon Hahn. 

...It’s NOT just the economy, stupid. The paper is closing in no small way because of those of us who’d rather get our “news” online, on our cell phones, on our car radios and other electronic media. Those alternatives aren’t bad, or evil, or even the enemy, which is how we newspaper folks often characterized them. We grumbled but accepted the new media and admitted they were pretty slick.

But like thousands of (soon-to-be-former) readers, I’m something of a Luddite. I want the in-depth news of real, ink-stain-on-the-kitchen-counter newspapers that dig and sift for weeks and months and give you more information on one page than a full, half-hour news broadcast. And I don’t want to sit in front of some damn terminal and click my way through copy bordered with blinking advertisements. Our dog brings the P-I into the kitchen after breakfast and we spread it out on the counter in that read’nfeed protocol common to many homes. But not enough homes.

This is what a revolution looks likes, says Clay Shirky:

The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen. Agreements on all sides that core institutions must be protected are rendered meaningless by the very people doing the agreeing. . . . Ancient social bargains, once disrupted, can neither be mended nor quickly replaced, since any such bargain takes decades to solidify.

....

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-how-people-feel-about-the-death-of-newspapers-2009-3

Sorry Matt.

 

  Hearst Had Offers For The Seattle P-I, They Just Weren't Any Good

 

That's not exactly true. Investors were lined up to buy the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, it's just that their offers weren't any good.

How bad were they? ....

We pressed him further.

"Let's just say it was less than $10."  Basically, a group of local investors offered to take over the P-I, assuming its debt and costs.They wanted to try and keep it running as a newspaper. Our source asked to remain anonymous because he and his group might make a run at another newspaper somewhere else

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/hearst-had-offers-for-the-seattle-p-i-they-just-werent-any-good-2009-3

yo dooooods.

it's daba #1 here.

don't forget to clicky on ads on the prefix. it's the kwelz thing thing to do. trust me!!!!

Seattle P-I Refugees Create Seattle P-I Rival

A collection of more than a dozen former Seattle P-I staffers (now Web-only) have teamed up to take on their on their old employer. Together, they've formed SeattlePostGlobe.Org, a new local news site focused on the Seattle Mariners and local Seattle politics.

....

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/seattle-p-i-refugees-create-seattlepostglobeorg-2009-4