Slog
News & ArtsFriday, March 27, 2009
City / Media On the P-I, Old and New
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 3:55 PM
There are a couple of good pieces by former Seattle Post-Intelligencer staffers floating around the web at the moment. This one, by Athima Chansanchai, explores how the former P-I reporter lost both her mother and her newspaper family within the span of a few months. And this one, by former P-I Microsoft blogger Joseph Tartakoff, looks at the way the Hearst Corporation treated its employees in the last days of the P-I's life.
But this one, also by Tartakoff, is the juiciest. It answers the question: What's happened to the P-I's online traffic since the newspaper stopped printing?
Tartakoff, now working for the tech news site PaidContent, writes:
Page views are down about 20 percent in the week since the newspaper killed its print edition and became an online-only publication. Seattlepi.com averaged between 1.3 million and 1.4 million page views a day this week, down from 1.7 million page views a day in January, when the site was able to draw large chunks of content from the print edition. And more than a third of those 1.3 million to 1.4 million hits are from photo galleries and comics.
Ouch. And interesting. Somewhat expected, as Tartakoff notes, but also not the sign of an instant hit.
UPDATE: And somewhat related, from a Seattle City Council press release:
Seattle City Councilmembers Tim Burgess, Sally Clark and Jean Godden—all former news reporters—are calling for the Seattle P-I Globe to be designated as a historical landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Board. The Councilmembers will be working with P-I alums and plan on submitting a formal application and other paperwork next week. If accepted the designation would provide protection for this 18 ton, 3-story high historical visual icon as long as it remains in Seattle.
Sally Clark a former news reporter? News to us. But her office says it's true, and apparently we haven't been paying attention—even to our own paper. According to her office, Clark has worked at the Everett Herald, the Bremerton Sun, and the Seattle Gay News (and has freelanced for The Advocate, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Out Magazine, and Alternative Connection).
2
There's 1.8 million people in Puget Sound and they get 1.2 hits a day?
Either:
there are a lot of loyal readers
there are a lot of voracious readers who consume tens of pages a day
there are some bots stuck in an infinite loop
Either:
there are a lot of loyal readers
there are a lot of voracious readers who consume tens of pages a day
there are some bots stuck in an infinite loop
3
The should have kept nobody but reporters. Their stable of blowhard pundits and their games and their fluff diversions can't compete with the blowhards and toys already on the web.
5
I'm still waiting for the Seattle P-I Web edition to appear. All I see so far is the old Times/NWsource format -- complete with links to print circulation dept. and so forth.
And as noted, with no print edition to draw copy from, this online edition is rapidly growing stale.
Where's The Beef?
And as noted, with no print edition to draw copy from, this online edition is rapidly growing stale.
Where's The Beef?
6
Told you comics are a big deal.
You know, if after the 90 days are up you decide to kick out a print edition 4 days a week, we'll buy it.
Just remember to get Zippy in it.
You know, if after the 90 days are up you decide to kick out a print edition 4 days a week, we'll buy it.
Just remember to get Zippy in it.
7
@5: First, the old P-I was not a Times/NWsource format -- it was produced and entirely by the P-I, just hosted on Times Co. servers (and with ads sold by the Times). Second, what site are you looking at that has "links to print circulation dept. and so forth."?
The part you did get right? There's not much content there. But I don't know why anybody expected anything more given the staffing. And I'm sure those people are busting their humps; wait until the startup fatigue sets in.
The part you did get right? There's not much content there. But I don't know why anybody expected anything more given the staffing. And I'm sure those people are busting their humps; wait until the startup fatigue sets in.
8
Perfect Voter:
This version of the online-only PI is about the most useful for me.
And elenchos: agreed.
This version of the online-only PI is about the most useful for me.
And elenchos: agreed.
9
Only 20%? That's not bad, considering that they lost most of their staff. If they only take a 20% hit and can then start growing again, I think they'll be happy.
10
@2: The Seattle area alone has 3.2 million residents. And the P-I was circulated even beyond just that range. And the site statistics most likely include people like me, who subscribe to their RSS feeds.
11
Yeah, but if the 20 percent who leave are all those neo-cons who used to post there ... I'd call that good.
12
@9: You're assuming 20 percent is the bottom. It's just as likely that more people will drift away as the lack of content becomes more obvious, and the numbers will go down.
And it's not clear how they're going to do any growing, given their exceedingly limited resources.
@11: From what I've seen those are the ones who stayed.
And it's not clear how they're going to do any growing, given their exceedingly limited resources.
@11: From what I've seen those are the ones who stayed.
14
if I'm not completely addled, I believe sally clarke was once the editor of the LRC news, too, back in the day when there was a lesbian resource center.
15
@7, the link to print subscription info was there a day or two after the switchover, when I saw it. It's not there now.
Why is this publication called SeattlePI.com? Shouldn't the name be Seattle Post-Intelligencer, located at the Web address of SeattlePI.com?
Or is the absence of the original given name just more admission that the game is up and the original PI is gone in all its forms?
Why is this publication called SeattlePI.com? Shouldn't the name be Seattle Post-Intelligencer, located at the Web address of SeattlePI.com?
Or is the absence of the original given name just more admission that the game is up and the original PI is gone in all its forms?
16
this thing is starting to stink. someone, please dig a hole. those photo galleries they're so proud of and that continue to keep air in this punctured balloon, are bottom-feeding garbage. show me the beef? would you settle for cheesecake? its embarrassing, frankly. if this is the best they can do, start counting the days until hearst puts it out of its misery.
17
By all means we should all work to defeat that historic preservation for the PI sign. It's distinctive and unique, and we can't have anything like that here. Also, it's from the post WWII era and everyone with any taste knows that all of that stuff is ugly. It would be like keeping the Ballard Denny's and reusing it. Can you imagine how horrible that would have been? Thank God for the Benaroyas - that new building will be a real reflection on The New Seattle.
I say tear the globe down and let the beauty of the P-I building stand on its own. Now THERE's an architectural statement the city can be proud of!
It's like how we got rid of those horrible marquees on the Coliseum and Fifth Avenue Theateres. All that neon was too garish, too flashy. It makes us true Seattlelites cringe to think how corny the old timers were.
Unfortunately, we were unable to follow through on the plans the spray the entire interior of the Fifth Avenue beige - damn those preservationists!- but at least Banana Republic was able to make the Coliseum pleasantly non-descript in its interior.
Generally speaking, we should always look to San Francisco or LA for guidance in matters of taste - except when they do something weird - and never, ever look to that Flaky Portland. After all, we're better than them.
Aren't we?
I say tear the globe down and let the beauty of the P-I building stand on its own. Now THERE's an architectural statement the city can be proud of!
It's like how we got rid of those horrible marquees on the Coliseum and Fifth Avenue Theateres. All that neon was too garish, too flashy. It makes us true Seattlelites cringe to think how corny the old timers were.
Unfortunately, we were unable to follow through on the plans the spray the entire interior of the Fifth Avenue beige - damn those preservationists!- but at least Banana Republic was able to make the Coliseum pleasantly non-descript in its interior.
Generally speaking, we should always look to San Francisco or LA for guidance in matters of taste - except when they do something weird - and never, ever look to that Flaky Portland. After all, we're better than them.
Aren't we?
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