Seattle Paper Prints Last Copy

Another one bites the dust: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, with roots in the city going back nearly 150 years, will print its final issue tonight. The reasons for the paper’s collapse are familiar to anyone who follows news about the news—owner Hearst could not find a buyer for the P-I, which lost $14 million last year. Publisher Roger Oglesby told the newsroom, “These rotten economic conditions finally caught up with us.” A number of reporters drowned their sorrows with shots of whiskey and reflected on the end of an era. Starting tomorrow, the P-I will become a web-only news source, “a community platform” with bloggers and links to other sites. P-I competitor The Seattle Times lamented “the loss of a journalistic voice” but has admitted it is better poised to survive now that it’s no longer burdened by a joint operating agreement between the two papers.