The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Shuts Down Printing

When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was put up for sale by the Hearst Corporation on January 9, 2009, Seattleites held their breath and hoped that a buyer would prevail within the 60-day time limit. Now, on the eve of the 60^th day, Seattle braces for a chill unlike anything the city has ever faced -- a life without the Seattle P-I.

It's like having coffee without the cream and sugar or a bagel without the butter and jam. Seattle without the P-I does not make sense for many in the Emerald City, but it is a concept they must come to accept and embrace and they will, in time. The adjustment period will take a toll on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's loyal readers and followers, but it will not last forever.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be available in an Internet-only format, but those who have flipped the chalky pages over coffee at Starbucks or Café Ladro are not easily impressed. I am one of those people.

You see, for many years I have searched the newspaper for everything from concerts, reviews, movie releases, local community events and the like. Searching for this information on the internet, when I am supposed to be relaxing away from the internet, is not very conducive. I enjoyed the time spent sitting outside under a green umbrella at Starbucks over my drip coffee with room and the P-I. It was a way for me to relax and de-stress without being poked and prodded in a million different directions at the same time. It was my break. If I wanted to be sitting at my computer looking up information, I wouldn't have needed to pick up the paper and leave my house in the first place.

My small and very important moment of being left alone and not annoyed by everyday surroundings will be coming to an end tonight, on the eve of the last official Seattle Post-Intelligencer printing. Picking up additional copies for my friends and family so that I can share a story or two with them will be no longer. I'll send a link and post it to my Facebook account. There is something extremely wrong with that picture. Will this decision to close the printer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer start a trend throughout America when a newspaper is in trouble financially? Will our literary world be flipped upside down with the click of a mouse? The only way to know is to try it out, support it and see if it works for the greater good of the newspaper industry or if it proves detrimental to the industry's survival.

At some point, it does become necessary to make changes in the function of a business in order to keep it afloat. Switching to a completely digital system may be the lifeline the Seattle Post-Intelligencer requires to succeed in our crushing economic time of need.