The last printing of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer rolls off the presses tonight. The paper has been publishing for 146 years. They are the largest paper to go completely digital.
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html
End of an era here.
From the article:
“About 20 news gatherers and Web producers will stay on with seattlepi.com, plus another 20 newly hired advertising sales staff.”
That is a sad sign of the times. They will have as many news people as advertising sales staff.
Call me a romantic, but I don’t think pixels will ever feel the same as good 'ol broadsheet.
I, and millions of others still hanging on to their daily paper, will eventually get over it. I wonder what it will be like, some day trying to explain to my grandchildren what a daily newspaper was.
Here’s another bone chiller: “Grandpa, you mean you were alive before there was an internet? … (eyes wide in disbelief) wooowwwww.”
No kidding. And, before the cellphone, and the CD, DVD, DVR, VCR, cordless phone and cable.
Ugh.
I too like the feel of a newspaper. It was easier to find the interesting stories in a paper than trying to navigate a poorly designed website.
Oh, man. I just re-read my post and realized I’m gonna be Andy Rooney.
I think I’ll go trim my eyebrows.
I’m going to miss newspapers.
If they adapt and improvise, they’ll overcome. If not, they’ll go the way of every other dinosaur that’s ever existed. And I’m wondering why most of the dailies most currently in danger of going under seem to have a leftist slant to their tone and sometimes content? Does that have anything to do with it? Or are we all just so in love with the idea of free content these days that we collectively shrug our shoulders and move on past the death scene, saying to anybody who’ll listen “hey…what could I have done, I’m only one person?”
T.
I feel the same about the tactile qualities of a book, being the first to open and read a new book is a real pleasure beyond the content. I just don’t understand the need for the e-readers nor condone the ecological expense of thir production.
I think our local rag (Indy Star) is going to be done soon. We used to get the Sunday paper only, but it has been cut down so much that it’s really useless. There’s very little real “news” anymore. Now I see they are just re-printing USA Today content. The local “investigative” reporting seems to have gone the way of the Dodo bird. They tend to report things with breathless enthusiasm, almost as if they’re reprinting press releases from whomever sent them. No hard questions asked, of course. They’ve recently re-done their website, the new monstrosity is so slow my computer can barely load it. I’ve never wanted to see anyone out of a job, but if this pig dies, I won’t shed a tear. Perhaps something more useful will rise in its stead.
I don’t think books will ever become obsolete. I love opening a new one and can’t imagine reading an entire novel on a computer. I have gotten into audio books a bit just because I’m in the car for hours a day.
I’m not sure how I feel about newspapers going away. I only subscribe to our weekend edition and hate how quickly they pile up in the recycling bin. I do however love reading the Sunday paper in bed with my honey.
I’m similarly ambivilent about newspapers, I think it’s because of their short shelf life I can’t get too fired up for them.
What pisses me off is in this case, as well as with the Rocky Mountain News 17 days ago, they’re owned by a company making money. Just not enough money to satisfy shareholders who give not one shit about news and the gathering of it. “We made 17 percent in 2007 and 11 percent in 2008, so we need to cut staff. Or why don’t we just close up shop?” Fewer voices = fewer checks on power = not a good thing.
Seattle is doubly fucked, as the Blethen family, which owns the Times, filed for bankruptcy a couple months back, and in the next three months we’ll find out if Seattle will be the first major market without a newspaper. Of course, the bean counters say it’s a “restructuring and should make the Times more competitive in the marketplace.” It’s bankruptcy! Aaaack!
Also, a friend who work(ed) at the PI says the 20 newsies retained for the online product are mostly under 30, and being retained at a fraction of what they were making with the print product. More power to 'em, I guess.
That’s the way of content producing, nowadays. I’m finding that out from doing a bit of freelance writing, myself. It’s nothing for people needing 500 to 1000 word articles produced to pay, at most, five dollars for that article. That’s just the nature of the marketplace, I guess. Example: I’m writing 20 500 word-plus articles relating to Christianity for this small organization. I like doing the writing because they’re great folks, but the pay is forty dollars for all twenty articles.
Also, I do steady work with another fellow in Austria. It’s nothing to be asked to produce seven 500 word-plus tracts for about 3.75 per. Because of the way I can put out content, I make it up on volume. But a lot of writers I know take a look at the state of the newspaper industry and think they have no future. They’re wrong, of course, but like the Seattle P-I, they can’t see the opportunity that lies within the peril.
T.
I thought the only things people did in Seattle was drink coffee while reading the paper and hold the paper over their heads when they run through the rain. What will they do now?
Laptops, they also serve as trays for carrying the coffee, bagle, and newspaper in the morning.
The real crime here is that now you get those wimpy online crossword puzzles that show the wrong letters in red.
This is a good article on newspapers and the pressure they’re under, these days.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-03-17-newspapers-downturn_N.htm
T.
I thought the same thing, I told my significant other they would pry the newsprint from my cold, dead hands. Then I got my Kindle. Now I read the newspaper every morning on my Kindle. I wake up at 5:30, pick up the Kindle and voila there is the Globe and the WSJ. Sit on an airplane and read a newspaper without elbowing your seatmate, pick it up in traffic or on the train and voila one click and youa reading an article.
It is totally awesome. Now I am frustrated that other newspapers are not available on Kindle. Hopefully more content will be available this way.
I just don’t understand the need for the e-readers nor condone the ecological expense of thir production.
As opposed to the ecological expense of printing and distributing books and newspapers?
Are they going to be able to deliver the same quality of content if they go to the “20 journalists and a server” formula? I’ve got a Kindle, too, and I love it. I’m just wondering if any of us will be willing to pay much of anything for “quality” online news.
T.