Looks Like Seattle P-I Closure Is Growing Closer
SEATTLE, WA (March 11, 2009) – Those watching the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to see if Hearst closes the 146-year-old newspaper this week have learned some more clues about the daily's impending fate from P-I business reporter Dan Richman tonight.
Richman filed a story Tuesday night saying that while the owners are publicly saying they haven't decided whether to sell or shut down the P-I, staff members learned today that boxes and bins are scheduled to be delivered to the paper later this week.
The boxes are for packing up desks, and the bins are for notes that need to be shredded, Richman wrote.
Also, employees have been told to file their expenses "promptly" and they can retain their cell phone numbers if they so desire.
The clues support the conventionally-held newsroom belief that the P-I is about to cease publication as a print product and maybe continue to exist only as a Web site. Some rumors thought this could have happened as early as Tuesday, March 10, the day that marked the end of Hearst's 60-day period for finding a buyer. In January the company said that if they didn't find a buyer in the two month period the paper could become a Web site only or shut down completely.
Reporter Richman also learned today that the company has renewed the domain name "SeattlePI.com" through March 25, 2010 with Network Solutions. The domain name would have expired later this month, Richman reported.
Seattle P-I journalists have been questioning Hearst about their intentions, and so far all they've been told by Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer is that the company hasn't yet "decided how to proceed." Richman reports Luthringer said, "We're still evaluating our options."
Regardless of what Hearst does, P-I employees will probably be paid through the middle or end of March due to federal laws that require workers to receive 60 days notice before a company performs layoffs or shuts down operations. If Hearst had shuttered the P-I today, the paper's 170 employees would have been paid through March 18.
Last week there were reports that Hearst had made offers to about 20 P-I employees for them to stay on after the paper is shut down to produce the P-I Web site. Of the 20, 10 would produce editorial content (including one photographer) and the rest would provide online support and technical operations.
Many P-I staff members declined the offer, a reporter said, because the new job was a significant reduction in pay, the cost of benefits would almost double, and the new online-only P-I would be made up mostly of blogs and links. For veteran employees the severance package would be a much more attractive financial option than staying on to produce a Web site, some observed.
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