60 Days to Digital

This post has nothing to do with television, and whether or not recently inaugurated President Obama will flinch and back away from the conversion deadline.

It does concern the Post-Intelligencer, one of Seattle's long-time great newspapers declaring that it was for sale and if a suitable buyer is not found withing 60 days, it will cease paper production and go all on-line.

That's Hearst Newspapers making that move. The once profitable and powerful Hearst ready to shed a major brand. It lost $14 million last year alone. The editor announced that he firmly believed they would soon no longer "publish in print."

Here's the extra kicker -- the P-I itself made the announcement and set the stage with a video on its website.

Gee, how about that. A brand using its primary communications vehicle to go directly to its consumers to convey bad news first, to set the tone, to establish the agenda. The story is pretty blunt ("Potential Buyers -- Zero?") and somewhat negative -- including gloomy comments of staffers.

Now, the rest of us will comment from that starting point, rather than allowing other media to break the story and become the secondary commentator trying to steer a conversation started by others.