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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Seattle P-I to close Tuesday
Corey Perrine, Photographer
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Hudson | NH | USA | Posted: 1:51 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> "The company, however, said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product."
At least it's not stopping everything. Just the presses.
C |
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Robert Hanashiro, Photographer
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Los Angeles | CA | | Posted: 2:32 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> Nice that they will "maintain seattlepi,com" ... but how many of the current staff will keep their jobs and work for the "entirely digital news product"?
The economy ... it's all about jobs my friends... |
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Andy Rogers, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 2:37 PM on 03.16.09 |
| ->> So that's that. The online-only seattlepi.com will employ only about 20 of the more than 150 employees that the paper has now. A large portion of those are production folks. It will depend largely on reader contributions, links to other web sites and content produced by Hearst's magazines. The Seattle P-I as we know it is gone, and it's a sad day for us as employees and for readers alike. |
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Rod Mar, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 2:40 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> Andy,
I am so sorry.
You, Mike Urban, Dan DeLong and the other photographers at the PI gave so much to the visual landscape of our community.
Your work will be missed.
This sucks.
Rod |
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Robert Hanashiro, Photographer
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Los Angeles | CA | | Posted: 2:41 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> I was wondering what an "all digital" newspaper in a large market like Seattle would have for a staff.
Very sad indeed ... |
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Michael Fischer, Photographer
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Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 2:50 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> Bert, you're right .. it is all about jobs.
BUT, the need for no press and no circulation people will really test the online newspaper theory. In a post I started about the former Rocky Mountain News staffers starting a online publication, they were trying to charge $4.99/mo.
Add some online advertising revenue in, and... you might just get some traction.
I hope so. |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 3:47 PM on 03.16.09 |
| ->> We are losing 27 people in our newsroom today....pay cuts and furloughs also, which I know pales in comparison to the doors shutting, but things are bad everywhere. |
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Richard Uhlhorn, Photographer
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Chelan Falls | WA | USA | Posted: 3:56 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> What a sad day for Seattle. I feel for all journalists and newspaper employees that are losing their jobs. Having been a newspaper photojournalist for 15 years, I know how difficult these days are.
I just wish I could come up with a business model that would work for the print media right now.
Rich |
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Joe Cavaretta, Photographer
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Ft Lauderdale | FL | USA | Posted: 4:13 PM on 03.16.09 |
| ->> They gotta be kidding. Seattle is home to Microsoft and they think educated web-savvy people aren't going to notice the difference between the website the newspaper produces now and the half-assed junk they are going to spew as an "oniline," newspaper??? I had sure hoped that the first attempt at an online-only newspaper might have been more than just this lame excuse for journalism. And what a good market to have given it a real shot in. |
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Christopher Rossi, Photographer
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Olney | MD | United States | Posted: 6:19 PM on 03.16.09 |
| ->> You don't know what you got till it's gone. As they fold one by one, people are going to really miss their daily papers. |
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Robert Hanashiro, Photographer
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Los Angeles | CA | | Posted: 6:40 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> Doesn't matter if you have presses ... or not. If the content is crap and/or junk nobody wants to view, it doesn't matter if it's printed on your computer/cellphone/pda screen or on paper.
If the "staff" is not producing what the potential audience wants to take the time to view, it matters not what it's "printed" on.
So in Seattle, you take a staff of 150 professional journalists that produced an award-winning news product ... take it "100% digital" ... and have a staff of 20 to produce it?
I will be curious to see the result. Will it be a lot of "citizen journalism"? Will it be "repackaged" / "repurposed" content from the wires and other newspapers? Will it be the "America's Funniest Home Video" theory of on-line "news" content?
Like I said, I am very curious to see what this incarnation of the P.I. will ultimately be.
I am hopefully for the best, but expecting ....
I still maintain that old theory: "content (ultimately) is king"...
Call me old school if you like... |
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Kelvin Ma, Photographer, Assistant
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Boston | MA | | Posted: 7:32 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> Sad, sad news.
This is a very telling quote from the executive producer's column that Andy posted:
"We don't have reporters, editors or producers—everyone will do and be everything. Everyone will write, edit, take photos and shoot video, produce multimedia and curate the home page."
The old saying "A jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. This approach asks a lot of its content producers, and many of the impracticalities will be visibly apparent very early on.
It's a shame that those who would have been well-suited to operate in this digital and multimedia-heavy environment — the photojournalists — were so readily cast aside.
I'm not suggesting there was any choice in what to do here — certainly web-only is better than nothing. EVERYONE should be rooting for this new seattlepi.com to succeed.
But as a victim of downsizing in a "web-first" newsroom, I'm left with little optimism. As Bert says, content is king. How this skeleton crew of a news organization, as well as the folks at InDenverTimes.com, handles that challenge will ultimately dictate their fate, and arguably, the fate of the rest of us journalists, too.
I sincerely wish them the best of luck. |
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Walter Tychnowicz, Photographer
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Edmonton | Alberta | Canada | Posted: 9:18 PM on 03.16.09 |
->> I have a few questions to pose to everybody that are currently working for newspapers and media companies. What do you all think will be the future of newspapers and media in general say in the next year/2 yrs, 5yrs and etc. ?? If it is said that the P.I (along with several others) will resemble a site such as the Huffington Post, is that then the future of media online ??
Was/is Arianna Huffington ahead of the curve with the Huffington Post ?? There were some that had the theory that the economic downturn would be temporary. I have done my time in the newspaper world and granted people with alot more experience than me are better informed and educated in the business. I look to this site for alot of that advice and guidance. From what I have been reading from posts from alot of other photographers is that the newspaper market may not come back. Are there going to be alot more Huffington Post clones out there, of what used to be newspapers and news sites ? Newspapers that used to have staff levels of 170-250-300 people are going to all be reduced to staff levels of 15- 20 people? If that is the case, that doesn't give much hope for the rest of the media industry and the future. If someone is going to be a one man/person band in this industry, then that person will also be competing with citizen journalism. Is it worth it to be a one man/person band in a market that is shrinking. Does the economics of the current newspaper/media market make any sense. Maybe all of us will be Huffington post type of news gatherers with our own websites/blogs feeding the central hive of Google ? I know that sounded silly, but it may come to that. |
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Corey Perrine, Photographer
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Hudson | NH | USA | Posted: 9:24 PM on 03.16.09 |
| ->> Dang, this sucks. I didn't realize how severe they were cutting into the staff. The days of in-depth reporting will come from where now? Broadcast Journalism? I hope not. |
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Jay Janner, Photographer
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Austin | TX | USA | Posted: 1:09 AM on 03.17.09 |
| ->> Andy Rogers is one of the very best photojournalists I've had the privilege to work with in my career (when we were both staffers at the Colorado Springs Gazette). It's sad to see the newspaper industry lose so much talent. |
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