Timing is everything

n January 9, The Hearst Corp. called Seattle PI employees together and confirmed every one's fears: the paper was being put up for sale. That same day, I had received an email that began:

You're on!‏
From:
Smith, Don (DonSmith@seattlepi.com)
Sent:
Fri 1/09/09 6:42 PM
To: lechatbon
2 attachments

Signature...doc (25.9 KB), More about ...doc (18.0 KB)

We love your idea for a blog. So if you're still up for it, there are just a few simple steps. ...

Yes. If you are wondering, this is not the first time in my life that my timing stinks (has stunk?).

The idea for the blog referred to above began with this one. As more of the posts here began to focus on health-related topics, it occurred to me they might be more coherent and readable in a blog of their own, separated from the other topics I wrote about here. After getting the go ahead from the PI, I created http://onedisadventureafteranother.blogspot.com/, but the official blogger status was not meant to be. Sigh.

So, I continue writing. However, the "what if" factor has reached its apex this week, with what looks to be the final week in the 146-year lifespan of the print PI. Affiliated bloggers are posting alternate links on their blogs, notifying followers how to find them should their addresses suddenly go dark.

But few blogs and bloggers up to the challenge of becoming the checks and balances we have relied on from the press. It will take time to establish credibility, time many communities and publications don't have.

Losing the professionalism, peer review and checks and balances of traditional journalism and the fourth estate in exchange for the wild and woolly frontier of the blogosphere seems a Faustian bargain at best.

Since March 9, I have been listening to KUOW's series on the PI, hearing about the history of the paper, the rivalries between the Times and the PI, photographer Grant Haller who was there and covered Mount Saint Helens back in May 1980 for the paper, the PI's columnists, and much more.

Now, today, word in the Weekly that the Seattle Times' books are in bad shape and it will likely need to cut even more employees to survive. Apparently, 500 lost in 2008 were not enough.

On January 9th, the PI was given 60 days for a buyer to step forward or the presses would stop. Without a purchaser, (which could possibly include an offer by some of the employees), the paper would likely become a Web-only publication and cease all other operations. This week, the time is up.

Whatever the Seattle PI will look like after the plug is pulled, its online presence will certainly be very different if only 20 of its 170 employees retain their jobs. Many of its writers, columnists, photographers an an editorial cartoonist will be sorely missed.