Seattle Metro Daily Stops the Presses

Effective St. Patrick’s Day, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will become the latest newspaper to try to find a different path in this brave new world. As reported by The New York Times:

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper will produce its last printed edition on Tuesday and become an Internet-only news source, the Hearst Corporation said on Monday, making it by far the largest American newspaper to take that leap.

The P-I has cut its reporting staff from 165 to 20, though it has added some stringers and columnists to help out those staffers who are being kept on.

The move comes after the Hearst-owned broadsheet lost $14 million in 2008. In an industry plagued by loss of advertising revenue due in part to loss of readership, the P-I’s grand experiment will be closely watched:

[Hearst] recently instructed all of its newspapers to look for ways to charge for digital content -- on mobile devices, if not online.

“We clearly believe we are in a period of innovation and experimentation, and that’s what this new SeattlePI.com represents,” said Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst’s newspaper division. “We think we’ll learn a lot, and we think the Seattle market, being so digitally focused, is a great place to try this.”

The New York Times piece is here.