Death of a Newspaper

I have been reading the Seattle PI since January 1993. Not a super long time compared to the 147 years the paper has been around, but its not a short period of time. So much has happened. The PI has been my personal companion the entire time I have been in Seattle. Nothing else has made it with me this long. I'm one of those goof balls that "saves" newspapers. I didnt save them all, but I did manage to keep a paper every time something "big" happened. I pulled some of these old PI's out to look at today, and wanted to share a few headlines. June 28, 1999 "Dome goes out a winner!"Ms beat the Rangers 5-2. Dec 20th 1998 "Impeached!" Then, President Clinton was impeached and the PI gave us 6 pages of coverage. Oct 8, 1995 "The Magic never ends!" M's rally to beat Yankees to force a deciding game. The M's had never been in this position before. For Seattle, this was crazy and insane all at the same time. Yes, the Sonics had won a Championship in 1979, but the baseball team had never made it to the playoffs. This was silly, wonderful, stuff and the PI covered like we lived it, in a very fun and celebratory way. Not like the New York Times was covering the Yankees...they were stuffy. We lived it up and the PI lived it up with us. Like a friend, the PI was there to tell everyone who would pony up the 25 cents, the entire story....all the details. Oh, but I didn't just collect the paper when they had made it to the payoffs. I saved a paper from September 21st, the day the M's pulled into first place tie with the Angels with a 11-3 win over Texas. The M's went on to beat the Angels in a one game playoff. (I was there for that one). My Oh My, one of the best days of my life. The PI put together special editions to celebrate it over and over. I honestly think the PI helped keep the Ms success story afloat to allow the city council overturn the stadium vote, making Safeco field possible. Maybe Safeco field is was the house that Griffey, and the PI built. Now years later, I can look at these papers, and it all comes back to me. I just don't know if going online to see old editions will have the same feeling. Probably not. But this is the World we live in. I "get" news real time now...it comes to me over my iPhone or my blackberry, or on Twitter. Reading the paper in the morning is merely a ritual. I already know whats in there, I just wanted to see how the PI was going to cover it. The impressive thing about this, is the PI writers always kept my attention. I wanted to get their spin on things. September 14th "10 trying to board jets in NY held" A Nation, still shell shocked, is desperate to make sense of the unthinkable. March 1, 2001 "6.8 SHOCKER". Strongest quake in 50 years. The PI was there to help us sort through these big stories with details, not sound bytes. At the end of the day, you cant beat a paper for getting the details. No TV, Radio, or Twitter Tweet can compete with a great writer. Whats sad about this, is people seem to be finding comfort with knowing less. The headlines alone seem to suffice. The sound byte IS the story. No wonder a company like Enron or World com could get off the ground. By 1999, America had moved clearly into "sound byte" Territory. Details were fuzzy, but it was ok, the "bigger picture" was clear as day.

Maybe there is a bigger price to pay for losing our local paper, and other cities losing their papers, and I hope I'm wrong. Either way, I'm going to miss Seattle PI. I'm going to miss it a bunch. The PI was always there. Come Wednesday, it wont be in the driveway, but instead, it might be in my inbox.

I don't know about that.