Posted Wed, Jun 23, 8:07 a.m.

In other circumstances, hiring a replacement for the Big Blog slot might be a positive sign for the future of Seattlepi.com. Unfortunately, closing or selling the site will be a corporate decision, not a local one. One hire doesn’t address the site’s real problem: what is Hearst’s plan to make ...

Posted Fri, Apr 16, 9:08 a.m.

Ah, now you’ve gone and pushed one of my buttons. I am no apologist for Ted VD’s reporting, which sometimes seems to me to edge toward misty reminiscence over hard fact. But I think Broder is another kind of animal and has gotten an unfair shake in recent years. True, ...

Posted Thu, Apr 15, 2:16 p.m.

Harris, I’ve read your critiques of Van Dyk’s work; some I agree with, some not. But I think your criticism of John Hamer’s TAO effort is misplaced. He seems to be trying to do something a bit different than simply validating ‘on the one hand/on the other hand’ journalism. If ...

Posted Tue, Feb 23, 5:09 p.m.

We fixed Doug Henderson's first name, but here's another correction: The Seattle Times Co. put its downtown headquarters and a nearby office building up as collateral for its refinancing this month, but I erred by including its printing plant in Bothell on that list. The Times did put a portion ...

Posted Mon, Dec 7, 11:22 a.m.

Thanks for pointing that out Yaz. A stripped-down version of the Seattle Times is available on Kindle for $5.99/month. No pictures or graphics though, and perhaps most important for the Times, no ads, so no ad revenue. Plus some accounts say Amazon skims as much as 70% of the Kindle ...

Posted Thu, Dec 3, noon

Chuck, nice post. The Seattle Times reporting staff performed as the pros they are under truly tough conditions: chasing a complicated, breaking story as it shifted across the landscape, working alongside understandably edgy police made all the more nervous by the tips cascading in. Following their tweets and those of ...

Posted Sat, Feb 28, 10:39 a.m.

This may be a bit obsessive, but I tracked down the guy who sold the Post Register its new press. New presses sold by Goss, the company that made the P-R's press, can cost up to $100 million or more. The P-R's press, which cost $2.4 million, is "drastically different" ...

Posted Sat, Feb 21, 9:40 a.m.

My congratulations to Mr. Plothow and the Post Register for their new press. And for getting favorable terms from your lender. Such a deal. But I think you are proving the point. With your circulation, ad revenue and cash flow dropping, boasting about your savings on operating expenses is a ...

Posted Wed, Feb 11, 2:45 p.m.

Scott, I can't imagine the P-I as an e-site that didn't include an array of news, not just long magazine-type stories.

Posted Wed, Feb 11, 2:10 p.m.

Scott, those are certainly important questions. The website is growing and has ads, but my understanding is the Cap Times probably would not have existed in print, and would certainly not exist now online, without the print revenue coming in from the Wisconsin Journal and those two once-a-week tabloids. I ...

Posted Thu, Jan 29, 1:30 p.m.

According to Plastic Logic, their reader is wireless, like the Kindle, and will do everything the Kindle does. Should be an interesting horse race. I've used Kindles for a while and it certainly is a lot easier to read than a backlit laptop. Motorola also uses E Ink's print on ...

Posted Tue, Jan 6, 10:20 a.m.

Tony, you need to go back and re-read my post. It says the promise of severance was made to "some", not all, of the 150 layoffs. In fact, according to the union, 31 laid-off employees were eligible for 20 weeks of severance. As for promising that severance, that was confirmed ...

Posted Mon, Dec 8, 3:06 p.m.

Edward--It is another refinancing, according to the Times. What is new about this document is that it nails down the current Times Co. debt to at least $91 m.--there is a reference within the deed to "other Loan Documents to which (the Times Co.) is a party", but no further ...

Posted Wed, Dec 3, 5:15 p.m.

Edward--Times Co. officials have told Blethen Maine employees they need to get the sale done by Dec. 27 to take advantage of the tax loss from the deal. If they get it done before the year ends they can then apply the Blethen Maine loss to offset profit from the ...

Posted Mon, Nov 24, 5:31 p.m.

True, some companies choose to accelerate writedowns for tax purposes, especially when they can take the loss against profit from other assets. McClatchy neither needs the Times Co.'s plummeting carrying value to produce a writedown--they have far larger losses on their other, much larger, Knight Ridder acquisitions--nor are they showing ...

Posted Tue, Aug 5, 1:53 p.m.

RE: Query from the Peanut Gallery: Hearst is paying the Blethens $1 million annually for first bid rights on their Times Co. stock. But answering your query with a question: Why would Hearst or anyone pay for all that Times overhead--presses, trucks, street boxes Etc.--when print papers are dying? Hearst ...

Posted Fri, Aug 1, 3:23 p.m.

RE: Lousy, biased job: Tony–Usually, I pretty much ignore anonymous posters, citing anonymous critics, citing unspecified errors in unnamed stories. But since you are in touch with "some in position to know" I'll make an exception for you. Here's a Journalism 101 tip–if you want to get your side of ...

Posted Thu, Jul 24, 10:24 a.m.

RE: Bill Richards' shell game: Michaeljohns, you are correct, corporate finance can be complicated, and in this case you do not seem to get it. The Washington Supreme Court only ruled on the Times Co.'s argument that the force majeure clause in its joint operating agreement with the P-I didn't ...

Posted Tue, Jul 22, 8:40 a.m.

RE: 180 degrees: Interesting comment Michaeljohns, but the Times' finances are a bit more complicated than you suggest. Not too long ago–a couple of years, not months–the Times own internal accounting contradicted its claims of financial difficulties in Seattle, while hiding the hemorrhaging taking place in Maine. Since then, the ...

Posted Sat, Dec 8, 12:50 p.m.

E-papers Vs. Print: A lot of interesting comment here. Certainly nobody has this all figured out yet, but the Inland/INFE averages do provide a starting point for taking the debate on the future of newspapers into a new arena, with some new timelines. A couple of additional thoughts: The key, ...

Posted Wed, May 9, 9:55 p.m.

drtygrl98342: I thought Richards did an outstanding job of ferretting out the nitty gritty of this topic. The report layed it's unbiased conclusions at the feet of both the readers and it's subjects, and was remarkably free of the usual PR spin which so often fills in as "news". Sadly, ...

Posted Sun, May 6, 5:55 p.m.

Spokesman audit: You are way off base on this rev. I did the report for the WNC and if you read the thing and the react from the Spokesman editor and publisher you'll see it is no kissoff. I am not a member of the WNC and will grant it ...

Posted Sun, Apr 15, 12:32 p.m.

RE: Who really represents the public interest here?: Not sure I follow your argument dj. I never argued that the P-I was losing circulation solely due to "natural causes." In fact, I didn't argue for any position at all. I did write that Hearst has deposed two former Times execs ...