By: Joe Strupp Editor & Publisher first speculated about a Web-only Seattle Post-Intelligencer nearly three years ago in a lengthy story about the JOA battle then raging between The Seattle Times and the P-I.
In that April 25, 2006, story, P-I Associate Publisher Ken Bunting called the idea a "non-starter."
?There is no advertising on the Web to sustain a news operation of the quality and size that puts out a daily newspaper,? Bunting, also a former P-I executive editor, said at the time.
But local freelancer Bill Richards, who had covered the JOA battle under an unusual three-year contract with the Times earlier in the decade, saw the idea as likely.
?The newspaper business in Seattle has been flipped on its head in the three years that this has been going on,? Richards said in 2006 about the JOA issue he had covered for the Times from 2003 to 2005. ?Three years ago, each paper was fighting for the dominant print paper. It is now clear that that is not the growth area ? it is migrating to the Web.?
Richards added later in the same story: ?The P-I has an in-place news staff, no overhead and the masthead. Both papers are gathering more Web viewers. If you think about it, there is probably no place in the country with a better set-up to try it. It has a very Web-savvy audience and a fairly Web-savvy advertising base.?
Bunting, who remains associate publisher through the Web-only change, could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.
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