There are many reasons for the death of this newspaper... reasons that I cannot help but think our local newspaper SHOULD have noticed... but have chosen to ignore.
Newspapers are essentially an outmoded method of news delivery. They cannot be updated; they waste resources (trees), they're a huge cause of pollutants, and a logistical, time consuming and expensive item to deliver.
That leaves the electronic medium. The obvious problem with that strategy is simple: newspapers are already competing with well-established electronic media... and the now omnipresent internet.
How do you charge for providing something that is provided, essentially, for free?
You don't.
The Seattle PI has been reduced, essentially, to a blog. One can see the effectiveness of a blog because, after all, you're reading this one.
Now, I don't have a staff of writers or researchers available. Nor do I have the brand name awareness of the Seattle PI which has, after all, been around 3 times more than I have.
And this brings me to what I believe is the most critical reason why the PI failed... why the Seattle Times SEEMS to be failing, and why the Columbian is failing... and these are reasons in addition to issues of technology and finances... because not every newspaper is teetering on the brink.
That reason?
Bias.
Newspapers have had a place in our communities and our societies. They've played a role in developing this country as tools of democracy. They've served as tools to hold our leaders accountable. They've sometimes been positive forces for change... but more recently, negative forces for change.
The critical element for newspapers has been under attack for years. Our local newspaper had a reporter that was prescient in expressing his concerns, a quote I reproduce here:
NEWSPAPERS TRY TO REGAIN CREDIBILITY WITH READERSI stopped paying to read the Columbian over 13 years ago. They attacked people they disagreed with unmercifully, using exaggeration, lies, bias and gallons of ink to attack individuals wise enough to understand that while this newspaper is a PART of our community, it does not RUN our community.
From: The Columbian Date: July 28, 1997 Author: MIKE FEINSILBER
The Columbian 07-28-1997
WASHINGTON -- Would you believe this? A lot of editors worry that you wouldn't - that people are less willing these days to believe what they read in the newspapers. They fear that, for a variety of reasons, newspapers are suffering a crisis in credibility, losing the irreplaceable asset of believability. The press has a lot to worry about these days: stagnant circulation, too few young readers, the Internet's ...
In Seattle, in what appears to be an increasingly leftist area that I am FROM (And, in the interests of full disclosure, point out that I used to be an employee of the PI a LOOOOONG time ago) those who aligned themselves with the left wing a-men choir that the PI had unabashedly and unashamedly become have now accessed all of those technologies and other sources for free that the PI charged for.
Why read the PI if you can get the latest leftist pap from Kos, or Horse's Ass... for what amounts to free?
Loyalty is a fine thing... until it starts reaching into your wallet.
The PI attacks Congressman Dave Reichert because he was smart enough to vote against the Empty Suits "Generational Indebtedness Act," telling us it was a "partisan" move. They failed to mention the 11 democrats who also voted against it. Were they "partisan? The PI lost their collective minds over the Gas Tax... and kept silent when we were screwed by WADOT who then cut the project list by 30%; an obvious fraud... in supporting the idea of a death tax... and on, and on... and on.
This represents something of the Chinese water torture approach to anyone to the right of Lenin.
If a newspaper beats the hell out of a large segment of the public they depend on to support them financially... what's the incentive to give them money if you're a part of that segment?
Well, based on the PI going under, it would appear their isn't one.
Here, we have a completely leftist newspaper, one that only endorsed democrats for any open seat in the last election, with an editorial page editor apparently PAID to beat the hell out of anyone to the right of Stalin. He uses insults, slams, lies and libel towards those he doesn't agree with... and that typically means those wise enough to avoid the leftist Kool Aid drinking he's so enamored of.
Why on earth would anyone not a fringe-left whack job buy the Columbian when this clown writes most of his columns as if the very idea of conservatism is a personal affront, and he needs to use his soap box to kick the hell out of those he disagrees with?
Now... that is not to say that *I* don't do precisely the same thing: I do, and I admit it. Unlike the two newspapers under discussion, how ever, I don't hide anything from anyone in the realm of news. And part of the reason why I spend time doing this is to provide SOME counterpoint to the lie-driven, agenda driven morons that spew their lies as if they were God's own truth.
But the MAIN difference between us is.... YOU DON'T PAY ME TO READ ME. For the thousands who've stopped by my blog, there is absolutely no charge. I refuse to have the google ad set here for a variety of reasons, so I don't even make any money off of THAT.
And those issues, of course, just go to politics.
The other main issue is one of agendas.
For several years now, the Columbian uses itself as a club to literally BEAT on those opposed to their agenda.
In the alternative, they go out of their way to ignore those opposed to their Orwellian vision of what they want us to become.
They have a track history of this type of arrogance and community damaging garbage: The current issue is their utterly absurd and nonsensical lies and exaggeration in support of their demand that we get light rail into Vancouver... and oh yeah, let's waste $4 BIOLLION to make that happen... all the while, typically writing as if tens of thousands of us are not completely opposed to their moronic idea... going so far as to elect an anti-light rail, anti-bridge replacement county commissioner this past November.
Some at the Columbian have come right out and attacked those who oppose their massive black hole of precious and increasingly fewer transportation dollars as they do their damnedest to force US to pay hundreds of dollars a year in tolls THEY will not have to pay.
There have been other episodes of Columbian idiocy besides their rampant lies about the bridge replacement; there support of gerrymandered elections for tax increases, their support of the city of Vancouver actually suing the voters into silence for downtown redevelopment? their support of the overwhelmingly rejected Port tax increase, the biggest increase in our history.
Their relative silence on the destruction our prtesident is causing this country (of course, they endorsed him... and once they endorse you, you can do no wrong) their failure to hold our congressman accountable for his earmarks and for voting to bury us under an additional trillion in debt... because HIS earmarks are RIGHTEOUS. There attacks... repeated attacks... against a couple trying to build a house in the Gorge... their idiotic demands that a state representative, now a re-elected county commissioner, "resign before the people do it for him," right before he won his first of four re-elections to the House and his subsiquent re-election as a county commissioner.
This goes directly to the point brought out by Feinsilber, above.
If the people believe you've abbrogated your responsibility by putting your politics or your agenda ahead ofwhat's right for the people... well, guess what?
You become the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
When a newspaper lies, distorts, exaggerates, attacks and loses sight of their primary responsibility of telling the unvarnishede truth, they become an increasing stain on democracy; and people like me become increasingly less likely to want to pay to be abused by tonedeaf idiots like many of those writing for this newspaper today.
There are lessons to be learned in the demise of the PI. As of now, the Columbian maintains their blinders... and continue to circle the drain.
Seattle P-I to publish last edition Tuesday
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will roll off the presses for the last time Tuesday.
The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the 146-year old newspaper, Seattle's oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.
The company, however, said it would maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.
"Tonight we'll be putting the paper to bed for the last time," Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby told a silent newsroom Monday morning. "But the bloodline will live on."
In a news release, Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said, "Our goal now is to turn seattlepi.com into the leading news and information portal in the region."
The new operation will be more than a newspaper online, Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, said. The so-called "community platform" will feature breaking news, columns from prominent Seattle residents, community databases, photo galleries, 150 citizen bloggers and links to other journalistic outlets.
On Jan. 9, New York-based Hearst put the Seattle P-I up for sale and said that the paper would stop printing if a buyer were not found within 60 days.
Despite community concern, no buyer emerged. The P-I lost $14 million last year.
"The thing that should not be missed here is that the P-I is not going away. The P-I is going online," Oglesby said in an interview. "Nobody is happy about the newspaper going away. That's a sad thing. The editorial voice is still going to be here."
About 20 news gatherers and Web producers will stay on with seattlepi.com, plus another 20 newly hired advertising sales staff. The publisher will stick around through the transition period, but does not expect to be part of the ongoing online operation.
"Our goal is to just let the quality of the Web site speak for itself," Swartz said in an interview. "We're very excited that the people who are staying with us will continue to evolve and experiment and innovate. The newspaper industry needs more innovation, needs more experimentation, and I think the new seattlepi.com is an innovative experiment and I think that the eyes of the country and this industry are going to be on what we do in Seattle."
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