RIP The Dead Tree Media?
Always keen on a story with a twist and a sucker for a newspaper with a daft name, TheEye brings you news that tomorrow is the last ever paper-based publication of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
It will, interestingly, become the largest US newspaper to go entirely online. Is this the inevitable way forward for the dead tree press?
Put up by the Hearst Corp in a 60 day firesale in January 2009 it hasn’t attracted a buyer because it hasn’t made money for years. Rather like the 149-year old Rocky as blogged on by TheEye a week ago, the P-I has 146 years under the belt. In Arizona, the Tucson Citizen is set to close on Saturday, leaving only one newspaper in that city. Rumours are that the San Francisco Chronicle is teetering on the brink as well.
Four newspaper companies, including the owners of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer, have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent months.
In February, the P-I site had 1.8 million unique visitors and 50 million page views, but the newspaper’s print circulation was down to 117,000 from nearly 200,000 in 1998. Its only real rival, the Seattle Times, has a print readership of 199,000 and had to cut 500 jobs last year – even after a deal with their P-I long-term rivals to share printing and advertising.
Some of the P-I’s more famous employees over the years included novelist Tom Robbins, columnist Emmett Watson and “Dune” scribbler Frank Herbert. Where are these talents going to be nurtured in the future before breaking in to the mainstream? The answer – on blogs.
Does the next decade mark the end of the printed newspaper? TheEye recalls the launch of the CoDependent which Zac Goldsmith apparently considered buying, and The Europeawhatsit which crashed and burned. Surely nobody sane would start up a newspaper ever again?
UPDATE: The Telegraph and The Times carry the story about the P-I on Wednesday: two days after it was reported here.
The way forward will be a load of EyeTwatCrispin blogs. Left, Right, military, model aeroplane or whatever. All advert funded and you make your preferences and choose your bookmarks.
Good writers make a fortune, wankers sink.
Dave, some papers might survive but most of them are going to struggle and fail. Now is not the time to buy stock in newspaper conglomerates.
Most of the Telegraphs work is outsourced to Australia which is why it reads more and more like a press release round up.
The Daily Mail is getting lots of good stuff though and I am seriously thinkng about buying it, now and again.
My local paper used to have 4 or 5 editions throughout the day including a City Final so sometimes I would buy it twice if something interesting had happened.
Now it is printed the previous evening only, in a city far away and contains nothing that I do not already know.
Monday is always ” sad baby day “; they get a story and pic from the filing cabinet and post it Friday afternoon.