Seattle P.I. Goes Web-Only

After 146 years in print, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has officially ceased producing hard copy periodicals. The March 17th 2009 issue of the P.I. marks the end of an economically troubled period in the publication's history.

The Post-Intelligencer began in 1863 as the Seattle Gazette. After a rocky start and an initial failure, the paper came under new ownership as the Weekly Intelligencer. By the 1880's the W.I. merged with the Seattle Post to become the Post-Intelligencer. In the 1920's, William Randolph Hearst's news giant, the Hearst Corporation, took over the P.I. and it has run it ever since. HC's ownership lent the previously liberal paper a decidedly conservative voice, even going so far as to frustrate the Roosevelt family's ties to its editorial staff in the 1940's.

The Post-Intelligencer, like so many print publications of today, has been hemorrhaging finance since the turn of the century. For nearly a decade the Hearst Corporation has carried the P.I. at a loss. 2008 saw a failed attempt to sell the paper, so as of Wednesday March 18th it will be a 100% electronic periodical. This leaves the Seattle Times as the only mainstream newspaper left in print in the entire city of Seattle, though several small, independent papers like the alternative standard The Stranger remain in wide circulation.

This trend toward online-only news outlets is only becoming more pervasive as the years go by. Improved Internet technology has made print next to obsolete. Admittedly, not many people are willing to shell out cash for ink-stained fingers when they have their pick of national aggregators at home, at work and on an increasing number of portable devices. The only people who aren't calling the Internet the future of news media are those publishers still trying to turn a profit on print, and even then that's just their official statement.

Our society is undergoing a dramatic shift in media creation and consumption. New technology and the resulting democratization of content production have only served to outmode the materials and indeed the entire business model of print. The Post-Intelligencer is severing nearly 130 jobs now that paper and its distribution is no longer an issue. This may sound grim, but with the proliferation of news sites, both mainstream and independent, there is more work on the web every day.

Things will likely be shaky in the business for the next few years. After all, media transitions always are. The advent of television removed the need for an evening paper and a cinema news reel. Today, the Internet is removing the need for several varieties of traditional media. The news isn't going away, it's just changing providers.

The situation with the P.I. isn't unique or isolated. With an ever-growing number of people getting their news online, it's not long before all major print will have to follow suit. Underneath the initial sadness of seeing a long-running part of a city close down, there is a sense of excitement and potential enlightenment surrounding the christening of new technology. If giants like the Hearst Corporation want to survive in the 21st century, they're going to have to log on. After all, if the Internet has taught us anything it's that individuals need only the slightest bit of initiative to fill a need that isn't being met by larger forces.