Now, The Seattle PI to close

On the heels of my last blog, as I was driving home on Friday evening listening to All Things Considered and Marketplace on NPR, here was more breaking news about the demise of traditional newspapers. The Seattle Post Intelligencer (PI), the state's oldest newspaper was announcing that it was likey shutting down its newspaper as soon as this week, and would only publish the online version. Here is the announcement that I listened to.

This is a milestone - on the one hand is a newspaper that is some 146 years old. On the other hand, as reported, this may become the nation's first metro web-only newspaper. That's two venerable milestones.

For those who have long cherished their morning paper with their morning coffee, this is a big let-down. For those (like myself) who need both - the morning paper with coffee, as well as the NY Times and other news online every day, this is a foreshadowing of the inevitable drive to everything online. And then there are those that have long been predicting this outcome and are beginning to see things fall into place, slowly but surely.

Remember the dot.com boom? I can visualize the predictions, the potential and even the hype of those times beginning to happen now. What is happening with newspapers, in my opinion, is just one example.

How long before we are saying in wonder - "Did you know that City So-and-So still has a paper newspaper?". 3 years, 5 years or 10...it is just a matter of time.

In the meantime, it seems appropriate for companies either in or around this business to explore what new opportunities may exist - in reporting the news, in marketing products and in engaging readers. There is no question that many new opportunities do exist - and many have yet to be conceived.

So, while the Seattle PI announces its closing and therefore the loss of the majority of its newspaper jobs, somewhere, there are ideas bubbling that will take this content to more readers in a different (and hopefully better) way, and in the process create innovation and new jobs in new fields. There's a nice thought for the future, especially in these tough economic times.