Paperless in Seattle

Today marks the last print issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's first newspaper and an enterprise that was was launched on Dec. 10, 1863.

The print edition survived for a little over 145 years before finally being felled by the economy and the Internet.

The P-I, as it's called, plans to continue as a Web-only news outlet (don't believe it? Check Wikipedia -- its page has already been updated to reflect the online-only label). Granted, the new incarnation of the P-I will be just a shell of its former self -- about 20 journalists and Web producers compared with 170 or so as of today. The online P-I may prove to be a failure or it may find a niche, but one thing is for certain: in journalism, 20 people can never do what 170 can.

As another print product dies following the demise of the Rocky Mountain News and the Baltimore Examiner last month, there is a question ever looming before the industry that is being asked a lot these days but never answered: What is the business model that is going to sustain the future of journalism in the United States, and beyond that, the rest of the world?
The model of advertisers (90 percent of revenue) supplemented modestly by subscriptions is broken, never to be repaired. Each day, each week, more ad dollars (those that are still out there in this economy) are migrating to the Web. They will stay there forever.

The problem, of course, is that for various reasons ad revenues on the Web are generally much less than in print. And the classified ad monopoly has been obliterated by Craiglist and a host of other free Web sites.

So now it is up to newspapers, which generate a vast majority of the news content published each day in all media outlets combined, to find a new business model -- one that effectively employs the Web. If they don't do it soon, many major metro papers will close, leaving large cities in this country without a newspaper. ("So what?" you ask. Well, the reason is simple: No one will be left to do the reporting. A few intrepid bloggers here and there can't compare with what a daily newspaper, even in the year 2009, can do.)

Whether it's micropayments, subscriptions, an NPR-like voluntary payment system or combination of any of them, all of them or none of them, something has to change -- and quickly. In order to survive on the Web, which is undoubtedly the center of journalism's future, newspapers have to find a business model that enables them to profit from both the print AND the Web products. Each newspaper that can't find such a model will die, both in print and on the Web (pretty twisted plot line, isn't it?).

Despite the Internet, there is and will be a strong market for print newspapers for the indefinite future (consider: The combined daily circulation of the three biggest and best papers in the country -- the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post -- is still about 3.7 million). Print is still the most portable and convenient format, and even if the Kindle 2 proves to be a landmark device, millions and millions of people can't afford one now (cost: $359) and never will be able to. Some may not cotton to the notion of reading on an electronic screen. Many people will never be able to afford high-speed Internet access. But there will always be millions who can afford a printed newspaper.