At last week’s No News is Bad News forum there was a whole lot of passion, plenty of ideas, and questions about new models for funding journalism. As Patrick from West Seattle Blog was talking about their relationship with sponsors I took a look at his site and compared it to SeattleTimes.com:

the complete ad content of two local news websites.

As of about 3:30 this afternoon, an interesting thing appeared on the PI’s website: a direct link to West Seattle Blog’s coverage of the cost of this winter’s snowstorm. Has this been going on for a while, or is it something new? Part of the upcoming changes in the Seattle printed newspaper scene? A special agreement with one content provider, or something more general? Outside of special ‘breaking-news’ scenarios, I can’t recall seeing this kind of reporting handoff on the PI’s site before…

from a long feature in tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine full of winners like: “Even the skeptical viewer must admit that whatever Driscoll’s opinion of certain recreational activities, he has the coolest style and foulest mouth of any preacher you’ve ever seen.” [#]

Video of Steve Swartz making today’s announcement to the newsroom at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in which he tells them that the paper has been losing money for years and they are now looking for a buyer to “continue this battle within 60 days”:

“journalism is a fabulous profession … but it is also a business.”

The twitterverse confirms last night’s rumor: the newsroom at the P-I just found out that their paper is for sale. [twitter]

update: the P-I will be on the market for 60 days. if no one bites, they will consider online, but “in no case” will it continue to be published in printed form. [p-i]

screencap via twitter.

Here’s a shocker (except for those who predicted it [fimoculous] last week): As of an hour ago & via the Seattle Times (the irony), come reportsthat Hearst could be putting the P-I up for sale as soon as tomorrow. After that, by virtue of the J.O.A., they’d have only a month of survival while hoping for a buyer [king5]. All of this means that things don’t look good for the long-term existence of the P-I as a [print-based] publication or for Seattle as a two newspaper town. As much as I see continuing value in untrendy print, I think that a far-fetched and somewhat-positive resolution would be for some richbags to step in and try to make a go of it by running the P-I as an online/kindle operation. With the L.A. Times recently claiming that their online revenue is sufficient to meet their editorial payroll [buzzmachine], this option isn’t entirely impossible. Ditching print in favor of their already very popular website certainly wouldn’t be ideal, but it would be a lot better than the further disappearance of local newsgathering, engagement, and arts criticism from the city.

Just like Times publisher Frank Blethen [times], Big Blogger (and most recognizable P-I personality to those who already take the majority of their news online) Monica Guzman tweets that mood in the P-I’s newsroom is “stunned”. [twitter] Of course, it’s worth remembering that the original story has a single anonymous “source close to the sale” and the managing editor at the paper reports that neither he nor the publisher had any idea about the impending doom [p-i], so maybe it’s just a dicey rumor eagerly picked up by the TV news.

::

In other newsprint news, the Stranger’s print edition (printed across the mountains in Yakima) was almost a victim of the environment’s Seattle-isolating conspiracy until they made use of the Times’s print operation in Kent. [slog]

I must admit, I’ve been firmly on the side that thought things ran pretty smoothly during our snowstorm. Hospitals remained open, police and fire personal were able to make the rounds, and many people had days of sledding on closed (or not closed) streets. What could better define a fairly successful response to the series of snow days we had recently?

Then I read Joel Connelly’s column in the Seattle PI a few minutes ago. It somehow gave me a glimpse of perspective that numerous blog posts didn’t give me. See, I was home bound anyway during the entire situation, both at my apartment at the top of Capitol Hill and at my mother-in-law’s on Whidbey Island. I had knee surgery on December 12th, less than a week before the snow fell, and I had pretty much planned on being home during this time anyway. So to me, it didn’t seem that bad that Metro couldn’t handle it’s routes or that Seattle wouldn’t salt and properly plow the roads.

Well, anyway, Connelly describes the process that the City, services, and government offices will undergo to upgrade preparation for the next storm. During this process, there are only two opportunities for members of the public to give feedback. I had thought, especially after reading CHS’s post about a Capitol Hill Snowstorm Impact Forum, that the public would get more of a say in the matter. Apparently, again, I was wrong. It seems that the public is only an afterthought in this process. As Connelly states in his article: “It (city council) should face a basic question: Has city government become so beholden to bossy ideologues, and so smitten with mayoral “vision” projects, that it has lost sight of basic services?” If this is how the situation will be dealt with, it’s time we exercised our right to be heard. This is the contact info for the Seattle City Council. If you feel that the city handled the recent snow situation badly, contact them via email or phone and demand a more open public forum process.

Edit to add: Andrew Taylor posts to CHS with the dates/times for the two forums that include public comments:

Tuesday, January 6 at 9:30 a.m. – Joint Meeting of the Transportation and Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities Committees: Briefing and Discussion with Seattle Department of Transportation, Human Services Department, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle City Light, Office of Emergency Management and King County Metro Transit. Time will be available for public comment.

Friday, February 20 at 9:30 a.m. – Joint Meeting of the Transportation and Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities Committees: Establish a detailed Action Plan for improved response. Time will be available for public comment.

On Wednesday, the UW Daily endorsed Dino Rossi over Christine Gregoire for governor [#]. The next day’s letter from the editor provided a little context:

Just as I was proud when the editorial board finished its deliberations about the gubernatorial candidates and made a final decision, I was proud when the comments and e-mails started pouring in. I was proud because the response meant that not only had we gone forward with an opinion we thought was right even though it was not of the local majority, our readers had also felt they had the freedom to respond. [daily]

Sparking dialog and pageviews definitely makes a lot more sense than a copy-and-paste endorsement that encouraged a vote against Gregoire because the Sonics moved to Oklahoma and in favor of Rossi because his environmental/transportation plan encourages putting more hybrid cars on the roads.

(via slog)

Blue Scholars show Current_TV around Seattle in this seven-minute documentary directed by Zia Mohajerjasbi (Sabzi’s little brother). In it, they visit Othello Station’s mixed-income housing developments, Laced Up in First Hill, Hidmo in the Central District, and sing the praises of the Ave and the UW campus in the University District. It’s lovingly curated and a totally different vision of the city than you’d typically see in a whirlwind tour.

Now, can someone please help these guys fix their windshield wipers? Sunny days like today won’t last forever.

(via erik [lj])

On Monday, I had the privilege of interviewing Stuart McLean, creator and host of popular CBC variety radio program the Vinyl Café. Since 1998, McLean has been taking the show on the road, visiting cities throughout Canada. Last year, the Vinyl Café visited the US for the first time, bringing the Christmas concert to a sold out Moore Theatre. The Vinyl Café returns to Seattle this year, with a show at the Paramount on Friday, October 10th. Tickets are still available, through the Paramount [LINK], Ticketmaster, or by pledging to KUOW [LINK]. You can listen to the Vinyl Café every Sunday at noon on KUOW.

In addition to his work in radio, McLean is a prolific and bestselling author; professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism; and three time winner of Canada’s Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour . His most recent books feature stories about the fictional couple Dave and Morley, and their family, friends, and neighbors; the Dave and Morley stories are a highlight of the radio program. You can listen to excerpts from the Vinyl Café by following the “HOW TO LISTEN” link at the website, http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php

[A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend: I'd intended to record this interview, but due to technical difficulties (i.e. operator ineptitude) I fell back on good old-fashioned note-taking. Any omissions, misstatements, or errors are entirely due to my horrific handwriting and obscure abbreviations, and should not reflect upon Mr. McLean, who was patient, thoughtful, and intelligent.]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Seattle MetBlogs: First and foremost, do you consider yourself a radio personality, a humorist, a writer… a professional Canadian?

Stuart McLean: I very much consider myself a writer, though I’ve worked in radio for 30-odd years. It’s a precious gift for a writer to experience that connection to their audience, a writer is lucky to get that. [Touring,] I am able to stand on stage and be there at the moment of giving and receiving, and it becomes a collaboration. I work with the work. I’ve been a guy who works on the radio, but if you told me I could do only one thing, I would be a writer.
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