So how is it that KING-5 TV has “a source close to the deal” telling them that the sale (and ultimate closure) of the Seattle P-I is imminent, while everybody at the P-I and the rival Times seemed to have been totally in the dark? Could it be that KING-5 got the scoop on the deal because they’re at the heart of it?
That’s the rumor that’s making the rounds now, which has Hearst in a deal to buy KING-5’s parent company Belo Corp., and it’s 20 TV stations, thus being forced offload the P-I in compliance with the FCC’s cross-ownership rules. And since nobody’s buying newspapers these days, that’s essentially a death sentence for Seattle’s oldest daily.
but what will happen to david horsey? Washington will be out another political cartoonist!!!
Perhaps Seattle should just become the first major city to go completely sans-newspaper and online only. That would be bleeding edge in line with the high tech nature of the region.
Anderson @ 1: I would buy a subscription to the P.I. if it would keep Horsey in town.
Maybe he will get on with the Times(a longshot?), or if the PI survives as a web-only organization, on their website. Anyway, a couple Pulitzers should look good on a resume. As for the possibility of Hearst buying Belo, shocking. Another sign KING Broadcasting is further going to be owned by out of towners. I liked the PI even though it was Hearst-owned, as a balance against the agenda of the Blethens. It was different viewpoints, and they endorsed different candidates. I do not want the situation with Spokane. One of the things that led the Spokesman-Review to run those articles about West was not exactly how he was running the city, but how the city was dealing with a property development in Downtown Spokane that was owned by the Cowles family, which owned the paper, and KHQ-6 TV. If they want to have other interests besides the media, people like the Cowles or the Blethens should keep them at arms length from the media part of the business.
at least we got jason on teh batchelor!
obama will be able to implement his most evil planz without any newspaper reporters around to check on him.
If the PI shuts down entirely I suspect the Tacoma News Tribune might make a bid for Horsey’s services.
He might end up at the Times too, but the Times hasn’t had a resident cartoonist for a while now and I’m not sure David is willing to work for them as I’m sure they’ve tried to poach him from the PI in the past.
Worse comes to worst I’m sure he can get by just fine by syndicating his work.
7
GOod point, seems everything is syndicating.
As for the possibility of Hearst buying Belo setting this up, makes sense, but I would like to see the business side, such as megamergers, be kept away from the reporters, if at all possible.
Breaking News:
Seattle P.I. Put Up for Sale
If you want to see what an online-only newspaper might look like, consider this one:
http://www.chattanoogan.com/
The story of this paper has some relevence to the current situation, except perhaps with some of the roles reversed.
The Chattanooga Times was the “liberal” newspaper in town, owned by the New York Times organization. It had a lot smaller paper, arrived in the morning, had smaller readership, but financially secure backing from the Times organization.
The Chattanooga Free-Press was the conservative paper in town – so conservative that it still supported Richard Nixon even when Goldwater told him to resign. It had larger readership, and was distributed in the afternoon.
Having moved away from Chattanooga when I went away to college, I lost track of these papers until I started searching for news from my old hometown online. I found that the Chattanooga Free-Press had been merged into the Seattle Times, and was now published as the Chattanooga Times/Free-Press as the surviving paper.
Some of the heirs of the Free-Press ownership, along with some editorial and reporting staff, have continued that paper as an on-line edition only, as “The Chattanoogan”. I have no idea if they make any money at it or not – one of the heirs of the founding family who regularly publishes opinion pieces claims to now be a real-estate salesman. But it still continues with it’s very conservative bent, as the link above will show.
While an undergraduate in college, I actually used these newpapers as the source for a paper I was writing on how media with different political bents can treat the same story in markedly different fashions. I examined one story, and compared the story placement, headlines, picture choice, and reporting angles of each story. It was a good exercise, and it showed the value of having a two-paper town, even if you don’t agree with one or both of them.
If KING 5 takes over the print media, we can expect to see car crashes, COPS-like mayhem, and cats in trees on the front page each day. Plus, lots and lots of boring sports reporting.
If the rumors are true, Hearst is buying KING’s parent company, the cross-ownership rules would prohibit the monopolizing of print and TV in the same market. Thankfully KING does not have any radio stations in town, I believe they sold the AM station to KIRO(now 770, originally was KING 1090), and the FM station, which played classical music, donated to the Seattle Symphony.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPTK#History
in boston, the herald, the more conservative paper is thriving, and the boston globe, liberal, is looking for a buyer. the city of boston actually is rezoning the area that houses the globes headquarters in anticipation of them going out of business.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Hearst is willing to kill the P-I so they can buy KING 5 TV. Old Man Yellow Journalism Hearst, if he were alive, would be proud. Seattle will end up minus a newspaper and with a TV station even worse than it already is.
You know asshat leftist pinheads, I thought that corporations made profits so they could stay in business and keep people employed. Now we see what happens when profits aren’t made and people lose their jobs.
So much for “evil” corporations.
the other thing is, you know how the town in vermont voted to have bush and cheny arrested if they set foot, how about towns that are normal vote to arrest all the anit christian newspaper editors. yeah, that makes about as much sense as the bush/cheney arrest warrant.
actually, i have to thank vermont for the bush/cheney arrest warrant idea. cause now i’m thinking, we can start to make a list of those we want arrested when the crash comes. my personal favorite, just because he’s a swarmy, dishonest, new york shyster comedian is jon stewart. yeah, i like to see him in cuffs. actually almost every chrsitian hating so called journalist loon. how about that msnbc fuck that’s maligning sarah palin, david shcuster, oh i shouldnt mention he’s a christian hater, right?
@17
Hey Manoftruth, why say anti Christian, David Schuster is a fucking Jew who doesnt like Sarah Palin because she is a Christian. He gets away with it because of the jew owned media.
Horsey at the Trib? I doubt it. The trib is probably next in line for collapse… aka “digital” publication.
Cant imagine the Trib with more web/banner advertising. Cosmic Horror!
TV and Radio news is not far behind in local markets. Consolidation of the media was literally a threat to Public Safety. Case in point, a Canadian Pacific Freight train carrying Anhydrous Ammonia derails near Minot, North Dakota on February 18, 2002. This was something that the people needed to know, and the media was not informing people, but playing canned music playlists beamed from another city. So far, I have not found much about deaths attributed to the spilled anhydrous ammonia, but the danger was there. What happened was, Clear Channel owned the stations, they were all automated, nobody there. This goes for Liberal Radio too. KPTK has very few in studio. Ron Reagan and Lee Callaghan. At least one Full Power AM, and Full Power FM station should be required to be on for 24-7, and have at least one person there to answer a phone call that might never come.
http://nrsalliance.org/minot_intro.htm
http://stc.uws.edu.au/gmjau/is.....arrol.html
http://www.startribune.com/nation/22846844.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M....._the_alarm
http://www.democracynow.org/20.....rth_dakota
In the case of the TV Stations in town, some were powered off for the night, some were run in automated mode if they were on air, but they got something going. Local officials should have activated the EAS immediately. Disasters don’t happen 9 to 5. A few years ago the NOAA pier on Lake Union caught fire, KIRO stayed on the air with only staff essential to operate the station, the hosts and engineers, that was about it. The reason? THe studio was not far from the fire!
When I was at a family reunion in Eatern Montana a few years ago, watching the newscast before Jay Leno came on, saw a difference from what we had in Seattle. Instead of a locally produced 35 minute program, it was a 25 minute program beamed in from Helena or Billings if at all produced in Montana. I was expecting it to be coming in from another town, because we were in a small farming town East of Havre, but I was expecting it to be broadcasted out of a studio in Havre to the west, or Glasgow to the East(Glasgow, Montana that is). Not Helena. Not just the potential for automated, remote studios, but also the cutbacks in News. No weekend Newscasts. On the Hi-Line(the nickname for the BNSF Mainline), there are many freight trains that pass through on the single-track, there is the potential for accidents. Montana Rail Link had a derailment of toxic chemicals once near Caroll College in Helen in the winter of 1989. I doubt they had to worry about media consolidation at that time.
http://montanahistorywiki.pbwi.....TrainWreck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B....._Operation
Meant Helena, not Helen. Helen is a girls name, Helena is too, but Helena not Helen is the State Capitol of Montana.
@10
While an undergraduate in college, I actually used these newpapers as the source for a paper I was writing on how media with different political bents can treat the same story in markedly different fashions.
well now, thats impossible. its not different fashion at all. for example, when hannity and katie couric report the same story, its not that hannity has a different political bent, its that couric tells the truth and hannity lies. well, at least thats what everyone around here says.