Witnessing and writing about the death of one’s own newspaper is not something I’d wish on any reporter.
Dan Richman and I kept it together enough to write the front page headline story for the last edition of the newspaper:
The online version has a different lede than the version that ran in print, which read:
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has printed its last edition. You’re reading it.
The newspaper sold out all over the city. It comes wrapped in a commemorative edition with essays and stories by our best writers.
Hearst gave me the option of sticking around as a business reporter with seattlepi.com, and I accepted the offer.
Here’s the squiggly pink worm that I bit like a hungry fish: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer would be the first printed newspaper in the country to transition to an all-online model. If it works, I’d have witnessed something remarkable, the future of general news daily journalism.
Curiosity overwhelms me. What is it like to witness the death of a newspaper, and a rebirth? Do I want to see this first hand, in all its pain and glory? Yes, I do.