Today marks another sad day in journalism history - the closing of Seattle's oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The paper's parent company, Hearst Co., put the P-I up for sale in January and no buyer was found at the end of the allotted 60 days, so the paper will be moving to an online-only product.
According to the paper's Web site, about 20 people will stay on as the publication transitions, with hundreds of other staffers being paid two weeks per year worked in a severance package.
The Editorial Board hates to see a good paper go under. Ironically enough, this time last year our current editor was preparing for an internship at the P-I.
The reporters, photographers and online staff at the P-I were some of the most talented and driven group of journalists out there. They are now left to scramble for jobs in an ever-narrowing industry.
While we understand that Hearst had to cut its losses, giving the paper a paltry 60-day window to find a buyer was extremely unfair. At this point, selling a newspaper that is already millions of dollars in debt is doomed to fail.
Seattle will surely mourn the loss of its oldest newspaper and oldest business, and the paper's administration is trying to remain optimistic that the online-only P-I will remain viable.
But the truth of the matter is the loss of the print product will be a hard pill to swallow for Seattleites, who have enjoyed living in a two-newspaper town for almost a century.
The Seattle Times, the city's conservative-leaning paper, will now have a monopoly over the city, and the hard-hitting journalism fueled by the fierce competition between the two papers may diminish.
With two major papers folding in the first three months of 2009, we fear for the future of journalism.
