By Donald R. Winslow
SEATTLE, WA (March 9, 2009) – Will Tuesday be the last day that the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer publishes a newspaper?
Most of the newsroom employees think that it's likely.
"Hearst has said there's no reason to keep publishing the newspaper when it's losing money, and tomorrow would be their first, earliest chance," a Seattle journalist told News Photographer magazine today. Tuesday is the 60-day deadline Hearst had set for a buyer for the paper to step forward, and there is no buyer at this point. When they made the announcement, Hearst said that if there was not buyer within 60 days then the printed paper would cease and the P-I would be published only online.
"They're going to do like Scripps did with the Rocky. When it's time, it's time, they'll just shut it down," the journalist said. "They'll just walk away."
While speculation is rampant in the newsroom and around Seattle, there's reason to believe there's a kernel of truth in what's being guessed at by P-I watchers this week.
On Monday morning, P-I employees were offered a "Last Visit To The Globe" on the newspaper's roof, a giant spinning neon planet with "It's in the P-I" written around the globe. Then there was another group visit to the roof around noon, and a P-I employee said that they'd been told a group photograph would be taken at 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon.
Speculation is that the picture is destined for the final edition of the paper. The prognosticators in the newsroom are betting that come Tuesday the staff will be preparing the final edition, published on Wednesday.
Journalists in the newsroom have also heard that Thursday is the day Hearst intends to launch the "online only" version of the P-I.
"The dot.com version of the P-I is going to be produced by 10 people in editorial, and 10 online support people," the Seattle journalist told News Photographer today. "They've [Hearst] already made their offers to those 10 people, and they've been told not to talk. There's going to be one photographer. There's a list floating around of who the 10 are who are going to survive."
When the offer to stay at the P-I and work online instead of taking a buyout was made, most turned it down on its face, the journalist said, because of the terms.
"It's about a third less pay, the cost of the health benefits almost doubles, and why should I want to take that and give up the severance package?" the journalist asked. The journalist said the newsroom has heard that even if the P-I goes online only beginning this week, the employees may be paid until March 18 because of federal law about how much time employees must be given notice before shut down or layoffs.
Even if Tuesday isn't the last day, P-I employees say that last day is coming very soon. They've even planned the wake already. A "goodbye" party has been scheduled for March 27 at an area Elks Lodge. Those attending have been asked to pay $10 per person because Hearst isn't contributing to the farewell event.
Meanwhile at Seattle's other large daily newspaper, management at The Seattle Times reached a tentative agreement with the Guild on an economic concession that would freeze the pension plan for Guild-represented employees for two years. Guild members will vote on the agreement on Thursday March 12 and Friday March 13. The vote is only on the pension plan and does not include other concessions sought by the Times (such as unpaid furloughs and wage freezes).
A list of the 10 major daily newspapers that are most likely to fold or go to online only was compiled by 24/7 Wall Street and published online in Time. Those papers are: The Philadelphia Daily News, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Detroit News, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Daily News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
