Results tagged “seattlepicom”

Speaking of Mike Davidson, the Seattle PostGlobe posse, and all-digital news platforms, tomorrow night is round two of No News Is Bad News: "Making It Work" (7-9 p.m., Bertha Landes Room, City Hall). The focus is on current and near-term models in the post-newspaper ecosystem, and Cory Bergman (MSNBC, LostRemote.com, MyBallard.com) moderates a panel that includes WSB's Tracy Record, Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo, Newsvine's Davidson, Instivate's Scott Durham, Seattle PostGlobe's Kerry Murakami, and InvestigationsWest's Rita Hibbard. You can reserve your free ticket here.

Yesterday, Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson was quoted on TechFlash as saying newspapers don't have a future: "And there isn't even a present, unfortunately." Which is not to say that the digital platform is all pixels and rainbows. While the Seattlepi.com is busy reinventing itself, the Post-Globe posse might take a cue from our sister site Torontoist, who have been reinstalling themselves since last December, when they almost went dark: Three investors are now backing the costs of Torontoist's local operations--as Canadians, they're more evolved than we are--though the site will remain affiliated with the Gothamist network.

You know that Real Age test? Maybe not, if you're under 30 and don't give a rat's ass. But plenty of older folk take the damn thing, which ends with a promise to shave years off your age if you join RealAge.com. After all, the spokesman, Dr. Mehmet Oz, is on Oprah, for Christ sake. Well, it turns out (according to an article in the NYTimes), that RealAge.com sells your private information to pharma marketers, who then try to sell you shit that promises to make you feel younger. And who owns RealAge.com? Hearst Magazines, that's who. They bought the site for $60 to $70 million in 2007, according to the Times. And, yeah, they also own O, the Oprah Magazine. So let's stop shedding tears for the local fish-wrapper, shall we? The suits know perfectly well how to play the internet game, and whatever they're doing over at seattlepi.com isn't some half-assed online experiment. These guys are pros.

We keep rubbing our eyes but it still reads the same: "For its first 30 days, the revamped Seattlepi.com will receive 'consulting and transition services' from The Times as part of an accord terminating the joint-operating agreement (JOA) that had linked the two newspapers for 26 years." What's next? VHS consulting on Blu-Ray?

The first nine entries in SeattlePI.com's local news section are very sad odes to the P-I's past. They're worth a read, even if you aren't running to pick up the last, commemorative edition of the paper itself. God knows we loved linking to the P-I, tried not to link to the Times when possible; we're crossing our fingers and holding our breath in hopes that the online-only site will have just as wonderful local news coverage.

It probably means something that we just heard about the last print day of the P-I on Twitter. Publisher Roger Oglesby just made the announcement on behalf of will-they-won't-they Hearst corporate. Over the weekend, the P-I's web address simplified itself to seattlepi.com, and the word is, the online-only version is a go. The P-I is dead, long live the P-I! [UPDATE: P-I Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi expounds on plans for the online-only version.]