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Monday, March 16, 2009

City / Media NWSource No More

Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 7:30 AM

After last night's temporary disaster declaration, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's web site appears to have decoupled itself from NWSource.com, the web property owned by The Seattle Times Company that was the P-I's former online home under the two newspapers' joint operating agreement.

Now the P-I's web site sits, unattached to anything Times-related, at the Hearst-owned seattlepi.com.

This move suggests, among other things, that the Seattle Times Company and Hearst have quietly reached some sort of agreement allowing the P-I to go its own way online. Or, alternatively, it suggests that Hearst is unilaterally going its own way online and daring the cash-strapped Blethen family to do something about it.

I have e-mails out to the two companies asking about the switch, but ultimately it's not surprising. Hearst has said that this is the week when it will announce its intentions for the P-I, and this is likely a step in that process.

Comments (7) RSS

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really? I just went to the website and it still has NWSource on the far right of the menu bar. Last night I too got the destruction notice but could still read stories via the links.

Posted by dkl on March 16, 2009 at 8:26 AM

PI archive searches are still tied into NW Source too.

Posted by I Got Nuthin' on March 16, 2009 at 8:34 AM

Bet there's some sort of agreement. seattlepi.nwsource.com redirects to seattlepi.com. If the Times fully controls the nwsource servers, they would be the ones who'd control where the redirect goes, and they wouldn't have to play ball if there was no agreement, right?

Posted by mark on March 16, 2009 at 8:35 AM

Waitaminute- Seattle has a newspaper?

Posted by Big Sven on March 16, 2009 at 8:41 AM

Eli -- Like you, I've been thinking that Hearst will simply walk away and dare Frank Blethen to do something about it.
The Times is teetering on the edge. If Hearst pushes it over, we can thank New York fat cats for making us a no-newspaper town. (Daily newspaper, that is.)
And another 100+ -year-old, locally based business is gone.

Posted by Inky on March 16, 2009 at 9:51 AM

Fat Cats, indeed. Papers are collapsing all over the place. It's an outdated model that is being replaced.

Posted by psychout on March 16, 2009 at 11:07 AM

Hearst Corporation pull plug on Seattle P-I print edition, Seattle P-I publish final print edition, freak out, online-only out, SEATTLE P-I BECOME ONLINE-ONLY NEWSPAPER!

ONLINE-ONLY SEATTLE P-I WILL SMASH ONLINE-ONLY SEATTLE TIMES!

And no, I don't feel like letting it go.

Posted by The Incredible Sulk on March 16, 2009 at 3:59 PM