Starting Tuesday, Seattle is a one-newspaper town.
When I heard the announcement today that Tuesday's edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer out be its last print edition, I though maybe I would write a long, philosophical post about it. But I just don't have it in me. But I just can't. It's all too sad. Layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts, papers folking. It's just all so bleak. Every newspaper journalist I know has been touched by this. Even those left with jobs have seen 401(k) plans shot to hell and they are left to wonder if, or when, their livelihood might evaporate too. Journalists can relate to those who have lost jobs in this economy, because we all know someone who has joined the ranks of the unemployed. And we all know the competition for future job openings, at least in the short term, will be fierce.
We are like the former newspaper employees who set type in hot lead or did paste-up work in composing rooms. Their jobs were lost forever to technology.
Now, news staffers know the feeling too.
The P-I name will live on, at least for a while, in cyberspace. But it will have far fewer people doing the journalism that covers the issues important to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
1 comment:
All the cliches apply...end of an era...one door closes another opens...American ingenuity and grit...
The story teller gave way to the hand written history gave way to print giving way to the internet which will give way to...
We'll weather this somehow and come out a little better.
That said, going through the transition isn't going to be pleasant.
To better days.
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