The Seattle Post Intelligencer is up for sale.  And if there is no buyer, the print edition will be shut down in 60 days.

Personally, I am not all broken up about this.  I have little respect for most of the left wing shills (they like to be called “journalists”, but I think they and their fellow travellers are the only ones they are fooling) at this Democrat/Left Wing propoganda rag, and I am not sad to see them go, victims of their own political leanings.

What do I mean by that?

Well, as a former subscriber to the PI, when I lived in King County, it was obvious that their goal was to cater to the left wing portion of the market.  Unfortunately for them, that portion of the market does NOT cater to the advertisers that a large metro publication needs to survive.

In addition, print publications cannot provide rock solid evidence of value to an advertiser, in the way that On Line sites can (like click through data).

I think this can be proven by comparing the Tacoma News Tribune, who is financially stable.  While they lean to the left, the reporting, on the whole, is far more balanced than the PI.  They appeal to a wider demographic, and people shop with their advertisers, so the advertisers stay with them.

Having said that, just this morning my wife asked me why, if I get most of my news from Fox News and the Internet, do I still subscribe to the TNT?

The only real answer I have to that is 1) portability, and 2) the kids like the comics.  Though most of the comics aren’t even mildly entertaining.  But that’s another post.

I guess, at some point, I need to ask myself if the $10+ dollars a month I spend on the paper balances out.  For that same $10, I could get a major regional or national newspaper delivered daily to my Kindle e-reader, thus solving the portability issue.  I know that my kindle payed for itself in 6 months, by changing from paper and hard cover books to eBooks.  Maybe I should think more about changing my newspaper over as well.  With the added bonus of receiving the paper ANYWHERE in the US I happen to be that day.

But I digress.

I wish the PI luck in converting to an on-line only operation (as in this environment, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to throw away $14M a year on the PI).  But I won’t be reading it there, either.

Tags: Seattle PI