Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 12:00am on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Readership of the online version of the Seattle P-I is falling, Editor & Publisher reported on April 22, 2009:

"Maybe print does drive online readership.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which published its last edition on March 17, was knocked off the list of top 30 newspaper Web sites in March, according to the latest figures form Nielsen Online.

Seattlepi.com fell to No. 32 with 1.4 million unique users, down 23% compared to March 2008. In February, the site was ahead of its then-joint operating agreement sister The Seattle Times. Seattlepi.com had 1.8 million uniques, while the Seattle Times had 1.5 million in February.

The Seattle Times picked up online readers as well. In March, the site recorded year-over-year growth of 70% to 2.2 million uniques."

The full story:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003964591

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:27pm on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

March 17, 2009: Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters Dan Richman and Andrea James wrote an epitaph for their newspaper on its last day of print publication:

"The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will roll off the presses for the last time Tuesday.

The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the 146-year old newspaper, Seattle's oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.

The company, however, said it would maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.

"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."

In a news release, Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said, "Our goal now is to turn seattlepi.com into the leading news and information portal in the region."

The new operation will be more than a newspaper online, Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, said. The so-called "community platform" will feature breaking news, columns from prominent Seattle residents, community databases, photo galleries, 150 citizen bloggers and links to other journalistic outlets.

On Jan. 9, New York-based Hearst put the Seattle P-I up for sale and said that the paper would stop printing if a buyer were not found within 60 days.

Despite community concern, no buyer emerged. The P-I lost $14 million last year."

Heather Sickels    Boulder, CO

Posted at 9:50am on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

March 17, 2009: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its final edition today, becoming the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product. The announcement was made by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman and chief executive officer, Hearst Corporation, and Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers.

The digital P-I staff hopes to show the way to a new model for journalism. P-I columnist Joel Connelly writes, "An on-line newspaper can be a vehicle for empowerment: The P-I will give you articles and opinions. But we will also supply the links so you can get the facts and do your own thinking."

In January 2009, Nielsen ranked seattlepi.com among the top 30 newspaper web sites with 1.8 million unique users. The site had an average of 4 million unique monthly visitors, according to internal Hearst tracking.

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:03pm on Saturday, January 10th, 2009

On January 9, 2009, KING TV in Seattle reported that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale and may well be shut down:

"Hearst Corp. put Seattle's oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, up for sale Friday, saying that if it can't find a buyer in the next 60 days, the paper will close or continue to exist only on the Internet.

"These options include a move to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff, or a complete shutdown of all operations," Hearst, the P-I's parent company, said in a statement. "In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form following the conclusion of this process."

Hearst Newspaper Division President Steve Swartz broke the news in a meeting with newspaper employees Friday."