《西雅图邮报》停印 转为纯电子版

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska's gold fields, printed its final edition yesterday.

Seattle becomes the second major city to lose a newspaper this year, following Denver, as many US dailies face uncertain futures, battered by quickly declining ad revenue in the age of the Internet and a teetering economy.

Hearst Corp, which owns the 146-year-old P-I, said on Monday that it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper, which it put up for a 60-day sale in January after years of losing money.

The P-I's roots date to 1863, when Seattle was still a frontier town. It will now shift to another frontier for newspapers: entirely to the Web.

"Tonight will be the final run, so let's do it right," publisher Roger Oglesby told the newsroom.

The last print edition began rolling off the presses at a suburban printing plant shortly after 10 pm on Monday. The front page featured a headline saying, "You've meant the world to us," and a photo of the 9-m neon globe atop the P-I's building, which has a slogan rotating around the equator saying, "It's in the P-I."

Hearst's move to end the print edition leaves the P-I's larger rival, The Seattle Times, as the only mainstream daily in the city. The Times plans to deliver a copy of the newspaper to every P-I subscriber this morning, spokeswoman Jill Mackie said.

The Rocky Mountain News in Denver closed earlier this month after its owner, E.W. Scripps Co, couldn't find a buyer. In Arizona, Gannett Co's Tucson Citizen is set to close on Saturday, leaving one newspaper in that city.

And last month Hearst said it would close or sell the San Francisco Chronicle if the newspaper couldn't slash expenses in coming weeks.

The US newspaper industry has seen ad revenue fall in recent years as advertisers migrate to the Internet, particularly to sites offering free or low-cost alternatives for classified ads. Starting last summer, the recession intensified the decline in advertising revenue in all categories.

记载了西雅图诸多历史大事件的《西雅图邮报》于昨日发行最后一期纸质报。该报记载了西雅图从一个木材小镇发展为重要港口的变迁，见证了矿工在这里的酒吧狂欢嬉闹，之后又前往美国北部阿拉斯加淘金的历史。

西雅图成为继丹佛之后今年第二个于停办报纸的大城市。目前美国国内很多报业前景黯淡，这主要因为在如今的互联网大兴和经济衰退时期，报纸的广告收入大幅缩水。

已有146年历史的《西雅图邮报》归赫斯特公司所有，该公司于本周一称，由于该报常年亏损，公司于今年一月宣布在60天内出售该报，但最终未能找到买家。

《西雅图邮报》于1863年创刊，当时西雅图还是美国的一个“前沿”小镇。而今西雅图转向了另一个“前沿”，那就是纯粹的电子报。

发行人罗杰．格尔斯比对编辑们说：“今晚是我们最后一次印报了，大家好好干吧。”

本周一晚10点钟过后，《西雅图邮报》最后一期纸质报纸在郊区的一家印刷厂付印。当天报纸头版的大字标题为《读者就是我们的世界》，并刊登了一幅位于报社楼顶直径九米的“地球”状霓虹灯的照片，在“地球”的赤道上绕着一条标语，上面写道“世界尽在《西雅图邮报》”。

赫斯特公司的这一举动使《西雅图邮报》的最大竞争对手《西雅图时报》成为该市唯一一家主流日报。《西雅图时报》的女发言人吉尔．麦琪称，该报计划于当天早晨向《西雅图邮报》的每位订户赠送一份报纸。

丹佛的《落基山新闻报》于本月早些时候停刊，因为其所属的E.W. 斯克里普斯公司未能为该报找到买家。亚利桑那州甘尼特公司旗下的《图森市民报》将于本周六停刊，这样一来该市将仅存一份报纸。

赫斯特公司于上月称，如果《旧金山纪事报》在未来几周内不能大幅削减支出，公司将关闭或出售该报。

由于广告商转投网络广告，尤其是免费或低价的网站分类广告，近年来美国报业的广告收入大幅下降。始于去年夏季的经济衰退加剧了这一状况，导致各类广告收入锐减。