The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (popularly
known as the Seattle P-I, the
Post-Intelligencer, or simply the
P-I) is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle
, Washington
and the surrounding area. The
newspaper was initially founded in 1863 as the
weekly
Seattle Gazette and later published daily in
broadsheet format until March 17, 2009,
when it became an online-only newspaper. Prior to ceasing print
publication, the
Post-Intelligencer was one of two daily
newspapers in Seattle, the other being the
The Seattle Times.
History
The
P-I, Seattle's first newspaper, was founded on
December 10, 1863 as the
Seattle Gazette by J.R. Watson.
The paper failed after a few years and was renamed the
Weekly
Intelligencer in 1867 by the new owner, Sam Maxwell. In 1881,
the
Intelligencer merged with the
Seattle Post.
The names were combined to form the present-day name.
Circulation stood at 31,000 in 1911. In 1912, editor Eric W.
Allen left
the paper to found the University of Oregon
School of Journalism, which he ran until his death
in 1944.
William Randolph Hearst took
over the paper in 1921. The
Hearst
Corporation owns the
P-I to this day.
Franklin and
Eleanor Roosevelt had a special
relationship with the
P-I. In 1936, their son-in-law
John Boettiger took over as
publisher. He brought his wife
Anna, the Roosevelts' daughter, to
also work at the paper. Anna became editor of the women's page.
Boettiger left Seattle to enter the U.S. Army in April 1943, while
Anna stayed at the paper to help keep a liberal voice in the
running of the paper. After Boettiger's absence, the paper
increasingly turned conservative with Hearst's new acting
publisher. Anna would leave Seattle in December 1943 to live in the
White House with her youngest child, Johnny. This effectively ended
the Roosevelt-Boettiger ties with the
P-I.
On December 15, 2006, no copies were printed as a result of a power
outage caused by the
December 2006 Pacific
Northwest storms. It was the first time in 70 years that
publication had been suspended.
On January 9, 2009, the Hearst Corporation announced that after
losing money on it every year since 2000, Hearst was putting the
P-I up for sale. The paper would be put on the market for
60 days, and if a buyer could not be found within that time, the
paper would either be turned into an Internet-only publication with
a drastically reduced staff, or closed outright.
The news of the
paper's impending sale was initially broken by local station
KING-TV
the night prior to the official announcement, and
came as a surprise to the P-I's staff and the owners of
rival newspaper The Seattle Times.Analysts did not
expect a buyer to be found, in view of declining circulation in the
U.S. newspaper industry and other newspapers on the market going
unsold. Five days before the 60-day deadline, the
P-I
reported that the Hearst Corporation had given several
P-I
reporters provisional job offers for an online edition of the
P-I.
On March 16, 2009, the newspaper posted a headline on its front
page, followed shortly after by a short news story, that explained
that the following day's edition would be its final one in print.
The newspaper's publisher, Roger Oglesby, was quoted saying that
the
P-I would continue as an online-only operation. Print
subscribers had their subscriptions automatically transferred to
the
Seattle Times on March 18.
The
P-I is among the most heavily trafficked newspapers in
the U.S., and in 2009 was regularly exceeding the page views and
unique visitors of its competitor, the
Times.
Joint Operating Agreement - "JOA"
From 1983 to 2009, the
P-I and
The Seattle Times had a "
Joint Operating Agreement" (JOA)
whereby
advertising,
production,
marketing, and circulation were run for both
papers by the Seattle Times Company. They maintained separate
news and
editorial
departments. The papers published a combined Sunday edition,
although the
Times handled the majority of the editorial
content while the
P-I only provided a small
editorial/opinions section.
In 2003
Times tried to cancel the JOA, citing a clause in
the JOA that three consecutive years of
losses were cause for cancelling the
agreement. Hearst disagreed and immediately filed suit to prevent
the
Times from cancelling the agreement. Hearst argued
that a
force majeure clause
prevented the
Times from claiming losses in 2000 and 2001
as reason to end the JOA, because they resulted from extraordinary
events (in this case, a seven week newspaper
strike).Each side publicly accused the other
of attempting to put its rival out of business. The trial judge
granted a summary judgment in Hearst's favor on the
force
majeure issue. But after two appeals, the
Washington State Supreme Court ruled in
favor of the
Times on June 30, 2005, on the
force
majeure clause, reversing the trial court judge. The two
papers settled the issue on April 16, 2007.
The JOA was ended in 2009 with the cessation of the
P-I
print edition.
Awards
The
P-I is notable for its two-time
Pulitzer Prize-winning
editorial cartoonist,
David Horsey.
Report on Judge Gary Little
Investigative reporting on King County Superior Court Judge
Gary Little's out-of-court contact with
juvenile defendants revealed accusations that Little molested young boys while he
was a teacher at Seattle's exclusive Lakeside School
between 1968 and 1971. It also revealed
inappropriate contact between Little and juveniles appearing before
him after he became a judge. On
August 19,
1988, after reporter Duff Wilson called the
judge to advise him the newspaper was publishing the story, Little
shot himself in the
King County
Courthouse. The
ethical debates
surrounding the publication of the story – and the network of
connections that protected Little – are taught in
journalism classes across the country, and led to
reforms in the way judges are disciplined in Washington
state.
Conduct Unbecoming series
In 2006
the P-I was the subject of a complaint to the Washington News Council for its
reporting on the King County
Sheriff's
Office. The media watch-dog group ruled against the
P-I, agreeing with Sheriff Sue Rahr's complaint that the
newspaper had unfairly disparaged the Sheriff's Office. The
P-I declined to participate in the proceedings, and opted
instead to give a detailed reply on its website.
The P-I Globe
The
P-I is known for the 18.5-ton, 30-ft neon globe atop its
headquarters on the Elliott
Bay
waterfront, which features the words "It's in the
P-I" rotating around the globe and an eagle perched atop
with wings stretched upwards. The globe was conceived around
1949 in a readers contest to determine a new symbol for the paper.
In the
time since, the globe has become a city landmark that to locals is
as iconic as the Space
Needle
. A stylized rendering of the globe appeared
on the masthead of the newspaper in its latter years and continues
to be featured on its website.
Notable employees
Among the
P-I's notable employees have been novelists
E.B. White,
Frank Herbert and
Tom Robbins.
See also
- Hutch Award (baseball award bestowed
at P-I's annual "Sports Star of the Year" banquet)
References
External links
Wikis
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