Pretty amazing that the 180 people- most about to be rather unceremoniously shoved out of their chosen profession- are still doing the jobs required to put out a great newspaper today, and will do so tomorrow and the next day, for as long as they are called on to do so.

Impressive.

How sad is this?

What happens to their archives and library? They've got the entire history of the city there; just imagine what's in their photo files alone. Even if some institution takes it (UW, MOHAI?) where the hell are they going to store it? The institutional loss here, the destruction of the collective memory, goes far beyond the thump of paper on one's doorstep.

Awwww shhheeeeet.

I must have been cartooning in chalk in my "apt"

(think shakespehere the twelfth night)

to miss the last day.... and that is BAD!!!!!

"they really mr wilson are gonna take away the private investigator from the waterfront?"

....does that mean they are gonna move the world to the top of the stanger building on capitol hill????

Maybe if... and mind you the hearst corporation is a big if.... they want to move "it" from the waterfront like they did poor old

" mr. hat and boots "... and "big boy" bobs burger doll from aroura ave. and all the other great stuff like "they" have in the past...

just maybe...

Santa Claus will move it to the newly renovated FOLEY BUILDING ON CAPITOL HILL LIKE THE MAGNUSSUNNYALLTHETIMEDESK that just came back to us from Alaska!!!!

god, this is sad. just like everything else lately.

I'm still being billed for home delivery, so they are either perpetrating a scam or think I'm going to pay the same amount for on-line access. Bull!

gramps wants to know when the euthanasia will take place.

This just sucks something fierce. Hearst has fucked over these people worse than I could even imagine Blethen doing to the Times folks (tho I'm sure it's giving him ideas).

@7: Hearst has a long history of not caring about its employees. Say what you will about Frank Blethen personally, but his family has treated employees far better than Hearst. Need proof? List all the employees who have left the P-I to work at the Times. Then list the few who went the other direction.

It amazes me that after all the shitty things Hearst has done, here as well as in places like San Antonio and San Francisco, they're seen as the good guys compared to the Times ownership.

History can be a great predictor of future events.

The Archived photos from WIlliam Randolph Hearst's flagship paper, the San Francisco Examiner, were supposed to have been donated to University of California in exchange for a huge tax deduction around the time Hearst got rid of that historic nespaper
. Some files made to the university, but most were sold off on ebay one by one over the last few years. You can still find hundreds of them for sale right now.

It is heartbreaking to see these images, some still with editor's marks and a pasted copy of the story as it ran on the back, sold off by a few people living on what is likely stolen property. This collection was ripped apart for greed.

Hopefully this will not happen to the PI Archives. In one form or another the PI has been part of the city of Seattle at every turn. I do not think we can afford to lose this history. Please Hearst, take good care of it for us!

Yet another of your news story about newspapers with no news.

@10 don't like it, don't click. I'm glad Eli's covering this - and doing it well - because those of us in the biz are certainly NOT getting any info from Hearst.

Coming from a journalist at a small paper that is also for sale with no buyers, I just have to say, this sucks. People may find us a prickly bunch but journalists do their jobs with passion and a diligence rarely found at a lot of job places. Unlike most people, we print our mistakes and take them home with us to stew over. The not knowing whats going to happen thing swings both ways, if you could know exactly when and where you would die (replace with: have all of your professional dreams crushed) would you really want to know? Or go on trying to be happy in unhappy times? This reporter just hopes the thing he does best in life will still be enough to raise a family on after the dust settles.

I remember when daily newspapers went out of business in BC last century, and they didn't have any other local papers.

Meh.

Ann @9, that's not what I wanted to hear. My worst nightmare, in fact. Pretty soon we won't HAVE a history.

It's no wonder that portions of the S.F. Examiner archives ended up on eBay. I worked at the post-Hearst Fangazminer. Boxes and boxes and boxes of archives were stored willy-nilly in hallways. One easily could have made off with what one wanted. I myself had the Hearst Eagle on my desk for a while, and almost took it home.

If they had any nerve left in them - forget about being demoralized, miserable, etc. - the newsroom guys would push that Globe off the top of the building, of course after making the street or whatever is below it free and clear of people. That would make a statement, not to mention being picked up by every news outlet in the world. But I'm sure the Hearst lawyers have that all taken care of. The sorry part of this is that William Randolph is probably spinning in his grave and, if he was still around, wouldn't even have a war to start to boost circulation. End of an era.

Gator up.

Is it really a good idea to invite a large group of soon-to-be-unemployed people to the roof of a tall building?

@18 - better than the Aurora Bridge (which Fnarf will insist on boring us with it's "real" name that nobody uses).

You're babbling, Willie.

RJH says: "This just sucks something fierce. Hearst has fucked over these people worse than I could even imagine Blethen doing to the Times folks (tho I'm sure it's giving him ideas)."

I never once considered working for Blethen. I'd rather drink muddy water. About our demise, the decision about what to say when is entirely in the hands of lawyers.

It isn't the PI whose publisher shot a puppy in the throat for taking a dump on his rolling green lawn, and it isn't the PI publisher whose militant advocacy against estate taxes drives his paper's coverage.

The Seattle Times has always been a drink-the-Koolaid paper. There's little air to breathe over there, and lots, always lots, at the PI. Regina Hackett

Puppies are indeed assholes in the New Economy. Get used to it.

@13: Do you mean BC as in British Columbia? Have you read those papers? Given the ridiculously bizarre government in that province and nation, they should be having a field day taking their pasty white leaders to task. Instead, it's a few photos and a 24 pages of hand jobs.

Hearst stopped publishing The News American in Baltimore on May 27, 1986, without any notice to employees. I know. I laid out the Metro section of the final edition, without knowing it would be the last.

@21 I'm so glad I never had to work with you. Tuck your beard back in your coveralls and go back to nailing wood on the side of boats or something.

No mention here of Chuck Taylor's post in his Seattle Post-Times blog on March 5, where he reported:

As to the job end date, (P-I labor relations rep Matt) Lynch says everyone should assume that March 18 will be the last date of publication and the last date of work for most people. Remember, the WARN Act notice said the P-I would cease publication "no sooner than March 18 and no later than April 1."

So does the P-I have to publish till the 18th or not?

The author of this post is one week ahead of himself. Legally, the P-I can't shut down until March. 18. That's a week from this Wednesday.

What will happen to the archives?

Good riddance.

Hearst is a cruel bastard who's reaped havoc at newspaper's all across the nation. They've built a billion dollar empire off the backs of hardworking journalists for and eternity...and this is what you get for your hard work and efforts. They can't even give these people the courtesy of an end date. They're fluent in the art of cruelty, head trips and dashed hopes. I'm surprised there aren't more blogs considering all the steam rolling he's done recently. My family is now caught in his crosshairs...as Hearst's hatchet has made it's way east.
You work hard for decades in a field - passionately - and this is where it gets you. My spouse is over 50. We haven't been newsies all this time for the hefty paycheck (if you are a journalist, you KNOW what I'm talking about). We actually like what we do and care about it. And, for what?!? Over 50 and now I have to start from ground zero...because the industry is beyond even life support. I am too broken to start again at another paper - just to be laid off in another few years (that is, IF you can even find a paper that's hiring).
So, what's a broken down journalist to do??? Collect unemployment, pray I can make my mortgage payments so my family has a place to live, and head back to school for something in the medical science field - the only ones hiring.
I know times are tough, and these papers are sinking ships but these Hearst people don't have to be so callous. People deserve a little respect and dignity - especially people who have slaved for them for decades.
I am sorry for everyone going through their chopping block right now - I wish we could all converge on their NYC offices to draw more attention to the kind of humanitarians they are.