The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper will print its last
edition on Tuesday, ending a 146-year run and continuing operations
as a web-only publication, the paper said Monday.
The newspaper is currently distributed to more than 117,000
subscribers every morning, making it the nation's largest daily
newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.
The paper lost 14 million dollars last year and owner Hearst
Corporation put the paper up for sale in January, saying that it
would stop printing if a buyer couldn't be found.
The move comes amid a bleak period for newspapers that are trying
to deal with a flight of readers to the internet at the same time as
the recession puts a crimp on advertising revenues. Most major
newspaper companies are reducing staff, eliminating bureaus and
freezing pay to deal with the situation.
The Seattle P-I is the second major newspaper to shut down in
2009. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver was shuttered in February,
while the Hearst Corporation is also considering closing the San
Francisco Chronicle if a buyer can't be found.
'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.'
The online enterprise will have a news staff of about 20. But the
vast majority of the P-I's 167 employees, including almost all in
news, are expected to lose their jobs. The closure means that the
Seattle Times will remain as the city's only daily newspaper with
about 200,000 subscribers.
USA
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