Houston Blog

Hearst, the media company that owns the Houston Chronicle, announced this afternoon it was all but killing one of its other large papers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Hearst officials said they would look for a buyer for the paper, but if -- as expected -- no one comes forth, they would consider options such as "creating an all-digital operation with a greatly reduced staff, or closing its operations entirely," according the Seattle Times. Hearst has owned the paper for 87 years.

"In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in print form," a Hearst exec told the P-I newsroom. (By the way, if you click the link above, you'll see the story quotes P-I columnist Joel Connelly; he's no relation to me.)

Our sister paper's coverage of the situation is here.

Seattle, of course, was one of the few two-paper towns left in America, which is not the case here in Houston.

But shutting down a paper is a major move, albeit one that might become more common than a lot of people hope.

Let's keep our fingers crossed Hearst doesn't get a taste for it.

-- Richard Connelly