We might just be reading that headline soon.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer is put up for sale

SEATTLE (AP) — Hearst Corp. put Seattle’s oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, up for sale on Friday and said that if it can’t find a buyer in the next 60 days the paper would likely close or continue to exist only online. More [here]

From the Atlantic Monthly

VIRTUALLY ALL THE predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital. Most of these scenarios assume a gradual crossing-over, almost like the migration of dunes, as behaviors change, paradigms shift, and the digital future heaves fully into view. The thinking goes that the existing brands—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal—will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as sources of original reporting.

But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if The New York Times goes out of business—like, this May?

It’s certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400 million in debt. With more than $1 billion in debt already on the books, only $46 million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good. More [here]

From UPI

CHICAGO, Jan. 9 (UPI) — Chicago’s Sun-Times Media Group Inc. (NYSE:SVN) said it would close 12 weekly newspapers to cut expenses as advertising revenues have fallen.
The 12 suburban newspapers scheduled to close are part of 51 newspapers published by Pioneer Press, which the Sun-Times purchased in 1989.

The newspapers, scheduled to fold Jan. 15, cover mostly the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Crain’s Chicago Business reported Friday. More [here]

Bloggers should take note of where they get a lot of their stories. The print industry and their online editions. Kind of ironic, yes? Then again, why would someone pay $500 a year for seven-day, home-delivery of the New York Times when you can get the same news online for free?

AWB

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