SEATTLE MAYOR TO MEET WITH 'TIMES' PUBLISHER

By: Joe Strupp Schell Concerned That Paper Might Leave Town


Seattle Mayor Paul Schell said he hopes to dissuade The
Seattle Times from moving out of the city after Times
publisher Frank Blethen this week threatened to relocate his
headquarters to the suburbs. The mayor said he plans to meet with
the newspaper owner upon Blethen's return from vacation next
week.

"It always concerns me when any Seattle business considers moving
out of the city," Schell said in a statement in response to an
E&P story that first reported the threat Monday. "When Mr.
Blethen returns to the city, we will meet to discuss all of the
Times' concerns in detail."

Blethen, whose great-grandfather started the paper in 1896, told
E&P that the Times may move if city officials don't
make things more economically attractive. "The city has taken a
strong ultra-liberal, pro-labor stance," Blethen said in a story
first published Monday. "We have seen zoning changes at the whim
of whoever is in charge and the city uses the Clean Air Act to
penalize employees who have cars."

Blethen said he is organizing a committee of Times
executives to study the pros and cons of moving the paper's 1,200
city-based workers to a suburban location, and criticized Mayor
Schell for refusing to talk to Times replacement reporters
during last winter's 49-day newspaper strike. In addition, he
blamed the city for failing to protect businesses during the
World Trade Organization conference riots in 1999.

Schell's statement defended the city's business climate, citing
statistics that show 35,000 new jobs were created in Seattle last
year and more than 2,500 news businesses were launched in the
first quarter of 2001. "This shows that many people and
businesses continue to feel that Seattle is a good place to do
business," Schell's statement added. "We are working hard to keep
it that way."

Times president H. Mason Sizemore said newspaper
executives would be glad to meet with Schell and city officials
when Blethen returns, but cautioned that the city would have to
provide real incentives to keep the paper. "Clearly, we need some
relief from what appears to be unreasonable demands placed on us
to do business in the city," he told E&P Online. "Whether it's
hassles with building permits or from inspectors, it needs to
stop."

While any move would be at least two years away, Blethen has said
he would likely relocate from the paper's downtown Seattle
headquarters, which spans five buildings on 12 acres, to Bothell,
Wash., 18 miles north where the Times' printing plant sits
with about 700 employees.

The publisher said the move would be part of an overall refocus
of coverage on suburban readers, whom he said make up 60% of
circulation. The potential move comes as the paper is still
dealing with the aftermath of the recent winter strike and last
year's switch from afternoon to morning publication.



Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.



Related story:
PUBLISHER: 'SEATTLE TIMES' MAY LEAVE CITY (06/11/01)



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