Seattle runs risk of losing both its major newspapers

SEATTLE — As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer moves toward printing its last edition, it remains unclear whether its bigger rival, The Seattle Times, is far behind — and whether this famously literate city could soon find itself without a major daily newspaper.

The Times is heavily in debt and struggling to cut expenses, just like many other newspapers across the country. But the Times is different from many large newspapers because it is controlled by the Seattle-area Blethen family and doesn't have deep corporate pockets from which to draw.

"The Seattle P-I may be going out of business, but the Times is an equally troubled company, and possibly even more troubled," said Alan Mutter, a former newspaper editor and Silicon Valley chief executive who writes the Reflections of a Newsosaur blog.

Publisher Frank Blethen acknowledged the struggles last month as he appealed to state lawmakers for a tax break for newspapers.

"Some of us, like The Seattle Times, are literally holding on by our fingertips," Blethen said.

Blethen declined an interview request made through newspaper spokeswoman Jill Mackie, who refused to discuss the company's finances in detail.

"There's a future for The Seattle Times as long as we can hang on through this very deep recession," Mackie said. "Are we certain we're going to get through this time? I think Frank would say we're not certain."

The family has more assets than debts, Mackie said, and is willing to sell them to keep the newspaper alive. The family also owns smaller newspapers in Washington and Maine and has put up for sale $100 million in properties, including the Maine newspapers, though buyers are hard to come by these days.

The P-I's owner, Hearst Corp., plans to announce a decision next week on whether to turn the newspaper into an online-only publication with a reduced news staff. A 60-day sales period expired last week, and Hearst had pledged to stop printing the newspaper if it couldn't find a new owner.

That would leave the Times as Seattle's only major printed daily, alongside The Daily campus newspaper for the University of Washington and the business-oriented Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. Areas directly to the north and south of the city are served by The Herald of Everett and The News Tribune of Tacoma. The King County Journal, which competed with the Seattle newspapers in the eastern suburbs, closed two years ago.