The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Goes Entirely Online
By Anna Johnson on March 19th, 2009The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is the latest high-profile U.S. periodical to go entirely online, having produced its last printed edition on Tuesday. It will be the largest American newspaper to become Internet-only so far.
The Hearst Corporation, which publishers The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, made the announcement on Monday. The move will see SeattlePI.com become the only outlet for the newspaper, and staff cut from 165 to about 20 people.
According to The New York Times, SeattlePI.com will end up being like popular U.S. political blog, the Huffington Post, providing commentary, advice and links to other news sites, with only some original reporting, all focused on the Seattle area.
Hearst Corporation’s decision is undoubtedly based on The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s poor financial results in 2008, when it made a loss of $14 million. In January, Hearst announced that if it could not sell the paper it would shut down the printing presses.
According to Nielsen Online, SeattlePI.com gets about 1.8 million unique visitors per month, which is more than the online readership of its main competitor, The Seattle Times.
It’s sad to see ‘institutions’ such as printed newspapers disappear, but you seriously have to wonder: is this the future of all newspapers? And if not, what will save them in an age where more and more people are using the Internet – including via mobile devices – to read and/or view news…
