I've been blogging all week about the death of daily newspapers and how I'm firmly convinced Seattle can no longer be a two-paper town. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale and if it isn't bought, Hearst has threatened to shut it down. In yet another twist, The Stranger's blog Slog is reporting The Seattle Times may be filing for bankruptcy soon:
On Wednesday, worries that the dominant Seattle daily may soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection crept out into the open when an administrator for the union that represents Times employees mentioned the possibility in an e-mail to union members.
"Within the Guild we have been preparing for a number of worst-case scenarios, including the possibility that the Times might enter the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process," wrote Liz Brown, administrator for the union, the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.
Read the full article here.
Interesting, just yesterday I was saying that it's too bad it can't be the Seattle Times that's failing, rather than The Post-Intelligencer, but it turns out both papers may be failing! I think this only goes to hammer home the idea that Seattle cannot support two papers. And the survival of one may boil down to The Times waiting for The PI to fail, or investors buying The PI and hoping to outlast The Times. Either way, it's not a good time to be owning or buying a Seattle daily newspaper.
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