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Washington's million-dollar university president
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It's not over until Hillary Clinton's cash runs out
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Annals of Northwest secession
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Bill Richards
Recent Stories
The Seattle Times Co. will cut about 200 jobs
Washington's biggest newspaper will reduce payroll through severance and attrition and cut $15 million from the operating budget this year. About two-thirds of the job cuts would come through actual layoffs.
After sell-off of the Times Co.'s Maine papers, a look at McClatchy
McClatchy Co. has an ownership interest in almost half of newspapers published daily in Washington, including the Seattle Times. Here's a look at how they may be faring and feeling in the wake of the Times' Maine newspaper sale.
Times Co. memo reveals dip in online ad revenue
Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen's new mantra for his paper's employees goes like this, according to an in-house memo circulated around the Seattle paper on Monday: "Survive…transform…transition…thrive." Sounds kind of catchy, but so far the Times seems to be hung up on the "survive" part.
A sentimental journey ends
In Maine, where the majority-owning Blethen family rediscovered its roots a decade ago, the Seattle Times Co. is selling three prominent dailies — at a nadir for the newspaper business. It's a bad sign.
A pause in the Times-Teamsters tussle
The end-of-the-month showdown between the Seattle Times Co. and Teamsters Local 174 truckers appears to be off, for now anyway. Times Co. senior vice president for human resources Alayne Fardella, in an update sent to the paper's employees today, Feb. 25, said the company has not sent the required 30-day notification of termination of its contract with 74 union truckers and mechanics, leaving the old contract in place. The company still plans to outsource bulk trucking of newspapers to private contractor Penske Logistics, Fardella says, but it isn't clear when.
There are WARNing signs at The Seattle Times
The newspaper and the Teamsters trade complaints alleging unfair labor practices surrounding the company's move to outsource trucking. The union says a strike is possible.
A pivotal year for the Times and its unions
Having never fully recovered from a strike seven years ago, the state's biggest newspaper is entering a period of critical labor negotiations. The company plans to outsource Teamsters jobs, and the Newspaper Guild contract is up for renewal.
The Seattle Times nut graph is bad financial news
Every year, Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen ends the year with a holiday message to the Times staff that usually includes a roundup of the year’s notable achievements, plus a dollop of holiday cheer. But this year’s message, while not inscribed on a lump of coal, won’t go down easily for Times staffers. The message: Brace yourself for some serious cutbacks in ’08.
The state defends a decision not to investigate the Times
Newly public e-mails show that the attorney general's office chose not to investigate the paper's management of a joint operating agreement with the Seattle P-I, despite knowing about a sworn allegation that the Times had secretly tried to shortchange the P-I. Former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge thinks that decision casts doubt on the integrity of AG Rob McKenna.
How an electronic newspaper could become profitable
Papers like The Seattle Times are in a tough spot: Online advertising revenue is a long way from covering expenses. Meanwhile, print advertising is vanishing. So why not ditch the presses and trucks and go electronic? It just might pencil out.
The Seattle Times minority owner cites an 81 percent 'loss in value'
McClatchy, which owns 49.5 percent but has no say in operations, says its share of the locally owned, private company dropped in value in less than a year from $102 million to $19 million.
McClatchy's stake in Seattle Times has been losing value dramatically
The latest McClatchy Co. filings give us a window into the Times' tightly held finances, and the picture isn't pretty: a decline of 12 percent in value for its stock in the past six months. Some of that is the new Joint Operating Agreement kicking in, but the problems run deeper than that.
Litigation over joint operation of Seattle's newspapers is over — until further notice
The Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town withdraws a motion seeking details about a settlement between The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Delivered on electronic paper, the Seattle P-I won't be your father's Web site
The flat, flexible display screen you can roll up and put in your pocket or purse might finally be here. Hearst Corp., owner of the Post-Intelligencer and an investor in the technology, said it plans to test it, possibly in Seattle.
Newspaper watchdog is examining newly released Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer documents
Redactions are a potential issue for the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town.
Details regarding The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer settlement are to be released
The Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town has persuaded the two companies to release key documents.
Seattle will remain a two-newspaper town for at least 10 more years
The day of arbitration, Hearst and the Seattle Times Co. announce a deal to keep the printed Seattle Post-Intelligencer alive.
Hearst argues it two ways
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer owner is floating seemingly contradictory arguments about newspaper business decisions in a lawsuit here against the Seattle Times Co. and in another, unrelated action in San Francisco.
Seattle newspapers arbitration proceeding postponed
A closed-door hearing that was to settle a lawsuit beween The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been delayed a week.
What's the worth of Seattle's biggest newspaper?
Financial figures disclosed by old and new minority owners show a big gap in the market valuation of the Seattle Times Co. That could be a factor when arbitration starts over the future of the Times and the Hearst-owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
An ex-exec claims the Seattle Times secretly undermined the now-fading Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Copyright © 2007 by Crosscut
A potential bombshell is buried in 3.5 million pages of documents and testimony collected for a winner-take-all arbitration between Seattle's two daily newspapers. In a deposition, a former Seattle Times Co. executive claims that Times officials in the mid-1990s secretly violated their joint operating agreement (JOA) with Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, using unfairly lopsided circulation spending to keep the Seattle Times' circulation lead over the P-I. Times executives then tricked Hearst into giving up their paper's exclusivity in the morning, the former executive claims. Since the joint operation began 1983, the P-I had been the morning paper and the bigger Times had the less-desirable afternoon publishing cycle. Today, of course, both are morning papers and the P-I is in a circulation death spiral.
The 122-page deposition by former Seattle Times Co. Vice President Stephen Sparks was given under oath to federal and state antitrust investigators in 2004. Sparks headed circulation for both the Times and the P-I under the JOA from 1993 to 1997. Speaking with Hearst attorneys under oath last November, he repeated the allegations. A copy of Sparks's earlier federal deposition was obtained by Crosscut.
Sparks' depositions are likely to be among the key documents under consideration when arbitrator Larry Jordan begins hearing the case behind closed doors on April 9. (Update 4/6/2007: The proceeding has been postponed until April 16.)
57 states — and the Soviet of Washington?
Sen. Barack Obama must be drinking some of the same Seattle water as secessionist Mayor Greg Nickels. In Beaverton, Ore., he told the crowd that he'd visited "57 states" with "one left to go." He goes on to say that the only states he hasn't been to during his presidential bid are Alaska and Hawaii, which means Obama thinks the U.S. has 58 states, though by his own count there should be 59.
A Seattle software exec makes sure that the buffalo don't roam
The Northwest's real fairy tales
An Eastside community where craftsmanship defines the homes
Melinda Bargreen: Goodbye to the Seattle Times music critic post
Columbus Symphony, deadlocked with musicians, shuts down
A Seattle software exec makes sure that the buffalo don't roam
In the 19th century, tourists used to slaughter bison herds from passing trains, blasting the big beasts into near extinction just for fun. That ugly tradition is echoed in the recent massacre of buffalo in Colorado, which has also touched off a classic confrontation over rights between two ranchers. The Northwest connection: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook points out that the man behind the recent massacre is the chairman and CEO of one of Seattle's top software companies, Jeff Hawn of Attachmate. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Life after Yahoo: Microsoft moves on — to Asia
Steve Ballmer's about-face explained
Saving our communal storm sewer, Puget Sound
A stealth Ron Paul campaign makes the GOP nervous in Idaho
Just 15 years old, the state Department of Ecology building is cracking dangerously
In the International District, an interesting approach to restaurant reviewing
Yours for free: a guidebook to farm-fresh food
A city of scolds
Grandmother, mother, and daughter — on the same soccer team
An Eastside community where craftsmanship defines the homes
Priced out, but still somehow living in Seattle
Grandmother, mother, and daughter — on the same soccer team
Mount Rainier's Paradise Inn is ready to reopen after years of renovation
A spring drought: Reservoirs are dry
Perhaps Oklahoma City would also be interested in a baseball team
Grandmother, mother, and daughter — on the same soccer team
Fast times and loads of fun, despite expensive gas
Mount Rainier's Paradise Inn is ready to reopen after years of renovation
Northwest Airlines plans to compete on the Seattle-to-Beijing route
The 787 program is 15 months behind, but some deliveries could be 30 months late
Hillary Clinton will you please go now!
An alternative reality show
John Moe: Sorry, Seattle, I'm moving away
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