Tuesday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer joins the Rocky Mountain News in the great Newspapers of the Past dustbin, except… online.
I used to deliver the Seattle Times (PM paper, only thing that worked with school) and the Kent News-Journal, in Kent, Wash. (Boy did people try to avoid paying their bills. Some things never change.)
Anyway, I’m not wistful about technology moving on, only about the idea that people will pay for quality journalism.
Did we shoot ourselves in the foot when we decided to make information free online? Did we have a choice?
Can we find the answers in time to keep journalism a thriving career, online? Hard to say, but the questions aren’t getting any easier.
When I found our competitor had started a Facebook page I decided to create one and wrestle with the technology, just as FB really messed it up with a new interface that… well, you can find enough complaints out there if you care.
How can we not go where there’s 200-million folks chatting the day away? People expect us to be there, and they’re right. We’ll use it in ways I probably can’t even fathom now, but not as shovelware for what we’re trying to draw people to at KTVZ.COM.
Could be interesting.
Meanwhile… RIP, P-I.
Leave it to Barney 