Next newspaper to close shop: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Hey Everybody,
I just wanted to share some sad and shocking news that I heard with you this morning. So, the rapid decline of newspapers is becoming more real everyday. Check out his article from TIME discussing the possible demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Ever wanted to know what a death sentence feels like? You can get a pretty good idea over at the Seattle Post Intelligencer. On Jan. 9, Steve Swartz, an executive from Hearst, announced in the newsroom that the company was putting the money-losing newspaper, known locally as the
As you might expect of any news broken in an actual newsroom, the whole thing is captured on grainy video. One reporter holds a digital recorder; a photographer snaps away. The executives wear shirtsleeves with ties askew. When Swartz, looking not unlike a man condemned, says, “At the end of the sale process, we do not see ourselves publishing the P-I in print,” he has to raise his voice to be heard over unanswered phones and garbled bursts from the police radio.
Check out the rest of the article here.
Yeah, that is pretty sad. I hope they get a buyer. But not really the best market for hope on that buy. So where does that leave the PR Professional. Well, strangely, I also saw this story from Sally Falkow of the Bulldog Reporter discussing what PR Pros will do after newspapers.
If the media is truly dying, what happens to PR?
Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers, spoke at a PRSA Cincinnatti luncheon recently. His presentation was titled The Present and Future of PR.
Pulizzi says that in a conversation with Forrester Research he heard a prediction that within two years half of all US newspapers will stop production. If that happens the PR and media relations model will be broken beyond repair.
Who gets to tell the story then? ” If PR’s role is to help manage the information from an organization to its “public”, doesn’t that include the creation of targeted story-telling initiatives like custom magazines, enewsletters, blogs, white papers, etc.?” asks Pulizzi. And I’d add video.
Check the rest out here.
Have a great weekend,
Will Flavell
