It sounds like the P-I's decision to shift to outside link aggregation wasn't shared with the P-I staff. Received this morning from one P-I reporter:

You know what's really beautiful about this sudden change of the P-I's website? They didn't fucking tell the staff.

I was pretty surprised to click on to headlines and find myself directed to an entirely different site, rather than a story written by a staff reporter, or an AP story.

Sheesh. What's next? Linking to the Times?

It's aggravating, but in a sense, I guess it's hard to care that much about what happens here anymore.

And from another P-I reporter:

This is a HUGE change, but there was no internal announcement about it. It was done on a Friday afternoon. Was this to minimize possible complaints among staff members?

I'm also hearing that it's unclear—at least to reporters—who in the newspaper's hierarchy is now making the calls about which outside sites get linked and when. One bit of informed speculation, however, has it that Michelle Nicolosi, the P-I assistant managing editor and web guru (and likely candidate to lead the online-only P-I when the print edition folds), has essentially supplanted all the other top editors when it comes to such decisions.