Posted on 01/11/2009 5:40:28 AM PST by abb
The Cincinnati Post: 1881-2007.
The Albuquerque Tribune: 1922-2008.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: 1863-2009?
If Seattle's oldest newspaper stops publishing this spring — a strong possibility after owner Hearst announced Friday that the P-I is for sale — it will join a long list of American papers that have fallen victim in recent years to changing habits, economics and technology.
Nearly 200 dailies have expired since 1990. And, in almost every instance, their deaths have touched off civic mourning that suggests a shuttered newspaper is more than just another failed business.
In Seattle, the grieving already has begun. "This is a civic crisis," said Anne Bremner, co-chair of the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, a group that formed six years ago when a legal battle with the rival Seattle Times threatened the P-I's future.
At their best, newspapers serve as community watchdogs, mirrors, forums. "No one doubts their value in our democracy," Mayor Greg Nickels said Friday.
That value is enhanced, many say, when a city is served by two or more newspapers, not just one. That's why the P-I's likely demise is so troubling.
"Competition improves the quality of journalism," said Kathy George, the two-newspaper committee's attorney and a former P-I reporter and editor. "If you lose that, there's going to be less incentive to break important stories and to be aggressive watchdogs."
Don't count on bloggers or talk radio to fill the gap, said former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, another committee leader: They mostly talk about what's in the newspapers.
But two-newspaper towns are disappearing fast. Markets larger than Seattle — Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix — have had just one daily for years.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
While this story has been posted several times since Thursday night, today’s version has some background and talks about other cities and their newspapers.
Besides, I think our group should declare an official wake to celebrate the event.
ping
There has been NO incentive for the PI and the Times to compete on important stories; just competition to see which one can be a more slavering running-dog lackey of the left wing lunatic fringe.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-demographic11-2009jan11,0,5616698.story
Television is starting to look beyond the 18- to 49-year-old demographic
http://themoderatevoice.com/25540/latest-newspaper-death-rattle-hearst-corps-seattle-pi-to-be-sold-in-60-days-or-closed/
Latest Newspaper Death Rattle: Hearst Corp.’s Seattle P-I To Be Sold In 60 Days Or Be Closed
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e85bb318-dedc-11dd-9464-000077b07658.html
Tribune bankruptcy delays Cubs sale
I am here in Seattle, and still wondering what the fuss is all about. There will still be the Seattle Times (at least for now)...and MSNBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, blah, blah, blah....
It's hard to understand why libs in this country can complain about anything - they own it all.
...with the way the Leftard Media keeps going Tango Uniform (Toes Up)pretty soon the only news sources will be the Free Republic, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
“It’s time pop a top,” I say!
......”No one doubts their value in our democracy,” Mayor Greg Nickels said Friday. ........
Mayor Nickels, please tell us what value a biased, prevaricating news paper adds to the democracy?
The absence of value is the reason for the death.
For sale and no buyers. Sounds like a garage sale that nobody came to, because it was raining or cold.
Marketing is everything.
Any time any politician says something good about any reporter or newspaper, then the information provided by that journalist is automatically suspect.
“It’s hard to understand why libs in this country can complain about anything - they own it all.”
You reactionary!
The People own everything in the country!
Now stand and sing, “The International!”
http://www.jossip.com/cbs-world-crash-burn-20090109/
Will CBS Own the World or Crash and Burn in 2009?
Our REPUBLIC!
The democracy starts on January 20, 2009.
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
Departing Sacramento Bee columnist says McClatchy has “the best leadership in the business”
http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/are-you-ready-to-take-one-week-pay-cut.html
Are you ready to take a one-week pay cut?
http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
It’s True: Seattle P-I for Sale
http://crosscut.com/2009/01/10/mossback/18768/
Dead paper walking
They do not report the news, only propaganda.
--
"Don't count on bloggers or talk radio to fill the gap, said former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, another committee leader: They mostly talk about what's in the newspapers."
Now That is a Lie. It takes weeks for most newsworthy events to filter into the MSN.
We are witnessing technology killing a Monopoly of information.
NOW the danger. The freedom of the press is specifically guaranteed in the Constitution. Electronic media is not mentioned, because it did not exist. The courts have never extended that protection, although it is logical. But the courts have never been logical.
Censorship from “The Establishment” has been a problem since cavemen trod the world. No doubt the village elders frowned upon some upstart youngster telling stories not “approved” by them. Henry VIII tried to license publishing after the printing press was invented. In our lifetime, we have seen how Marxist countries squelched free speech. Obama will try to do it here.
They all failed.
Information always finds a way to be distributed. Always.
The only ones mourning are the employees and a few socialists.
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