Seattlest: Printed P-I's Last Day: Tuesday the 17th

rjh

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:56:06 -0800

Extra money??? Hearst is spending bare-bones on this thing: Chopping people's pay, cutting their benefits, jettisoning most of their veteran reporters who actually know the city. This is a laboratory for Hearst, nothing more. Hire more journalists? Ha!

TroyJMorris

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:14:54 -0800

Screw the refund, can't we just cancel anyways?! I hate waiting on hold for this shit too. I love my crosswords, but not enough to see the Times on my doorstep every morning.

MvB

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:49:30 -0800

That's the *idea*, I'm sure. But I'm not sure it means they have any extra newsroom money right now. The Times was in charge of selling advertising, so now the P-I is in full start-up mode as an independent business entity, unless they've worked out a deal I haven't heard about. (Which is possible.)

Charles Redell

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:44:08 -0800

Do they give you the ioption just to cancel the sub and get a refund? Who wants the Seattle Times? Definitely sparse at the start, but without all those printing and delivery costs/workers, one imagines that they'd have some money for the newsroom now. Isn't that the idea?

Katelyn

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:39:29 -0800

Damn. That's what I get for not staying signed in to Twitter this morning--I miss this huge news! Wow, it's really happening. I can't wait to see what they do with the online version.

MvB

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:34:08 -0800

Yeah, not only do I have to start the day without the P-I now, but I have to ignore the fact that the Seattle Times is filling out the end of my subscription. If they would just go online already, they could save me that. I think the P-I's coverage is going to be necessarily slim out of the gate--but if they can figure out how to monetize the online experience quickly enough, then I hope to see them start adding contributors back (as stringers, I imagine).

Charles Redell

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:26:38 -0800

as much as I don't want to live in a "no-newspaper" town, since the PI is going to be online, I'd like to see the Times go away now. That the crappier paper has survived irks me to no end. I am interested to see how much newsroom staff the PI retains and what their business model looks like in the long run. Also, what will their coverage be like? How robust will it be from here on out? I have high hopes that the staff left behind is going to kick ass just to prove the point of how valuable they are. One can dream anyway.