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1863 - 2009

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer tomorrow becomes the latest major city daily newspaper to end its print operations.  The P-I as it is known to locals had been published as a broadsheet in one form or another for over 140 years since its inception as the Seattle Gazette back in 1863, 26 years before the State of Washington was even admitted into the Union. The organization will live on however in a scaled down, online only operation.  While to some this might be a sad day for the news, to me it represents progress.  Everyone has known that the “print” news was migrating to the Internet for years now.  But still many daily newspapers have stood idly by watching as their old business model becomes increasingly obsolete, instead of figuring out new ways to capitalize on the writing and marketing talent and experience at their disposal.

Meanwhile the online marketplace for information is percolating with imagination and creativity.  Just in my hometown of Baltimore alone as the 171 year old Baltimore Sun flounders and lays off staff in a seemingly endless stream, numerous new online publications, like the new Baltimore Brew, which combines aspects of traditional reporting and blogging, and Change Baltimore which seeks answers to some of the enormous problems facing the city, are rising up to take the place of the old guard, and the same thing is going on across the entire country and beyond.  Now someone just needs to figure out how to capitalize on it.

You can takepart in getting the straight dope on old and new media by checking out Media Matters.

LINKS:

Bloomberg: Seattle Post Intelligencer to end print edition

Forbes: Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper goes web only

CNNMoney: Seattle Post-Intelligencer halts print edition