Seattle Post-Intelligencer goes web-only
3/18/2009 at 8:34 AM
It's been widely reported that the newspaper industry is facing it's most trying times. While there may be exceptions in some markets, general declining circulation/subscriptions, classified revenue and ad revenue have forced things to the stage where alternatives are being seeked out. Although challenges are generally worldwide, the situation in the US is of course exaggerated by the state of their economy.
After being unable to find a buyer willing to turn their operation around, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed it's last paper edition yesterday and starting today is the first major US daily paper to attempt a move to an online-only news source. Information on the website itself will be free to all and they will attempt to be sustainable by having their sales staff of 20 sell enough online ads to support staff, other expenses and perhaps one day be profitable.
It's anyone's guess whether or not they'll be able to make it work, but other newspapers in US and even Canada will no doubt be watching closely.
Being a student of technology and the internet myself, I'll be watching with great interest as well. It sounds like their online readership is fairly high and will no doubt spike further after being put under this microscrope... but ultimately it will come down to the online ad market in Seattle. Being a fairly progressive city, you'd have to think that if it can work anywhere that would be the place.
Here's a full article from CNNMoney:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/16/news/companies/Seattle_PI/
In your opinion, will they be successful? What do you think the worldwide newspaper landscape will look like in 20 years?
This discussion isn't intended to be a debate on the health of our Westman or Manitoba papers, but just a note for if this discussion delves into our local market at all, that both of our papers have recently stated that they are healthy businesses. Anything to the contrary presented as fact should be taken with a serious grain of salt.
Edited by Adam, 2009-03-18 08:39:17