Hearst 150-year old Seattle P-I Newspaper May Close Shop

Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer said that three options exist in dealing with the problem and these are:
• Seek buyer, if no buyer then
• Go digital or
• Close
No decision has been made so far.

Seattle P-I employees numbering about 170 have been notified that their jobs will end between March 18 and April 11.

The newspaper said that Hearst is obliged to employees of the P-I, as the daily is known, through March 18 but is ‘free to shot down anytime’, Inquirer.net reports.

The P-I last week reported that Hearst had offered some reporters jobs with an online-only version of the nearly 150-year old newspaper if Hearst carries out its threat to shut down the print edition.

The newspaper had been operating at a loss since 2000. The P-I was founded in 1863 as the Seattle Gazette and has a daily circulation of 114,000.

Seattle P-I is owned by the Hearst family who also owns the San Francisco Chronicle and other publishing companies. Earlier Hearst announced that San Francisco Chronicle may be up for sale unless the union agrees on substantial job cuts

Last Monday Hearst announced that the San Francisco Chronicle and its largest union have reached a tentative agreement which Hearst said was necessary to keep the newspaper alive.

Several US newspapers have closed starting late last year due primarily to declining advertising revenues, falling circulation and the noticeable switching of readership habits to free online news. Some of these major newspapers include Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia News, Minneapolis Star and lately the Rocky Mountain News, among others.