《西雅圖郵報》停印 轉爲純電子版

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.

記載了西雅圖諸多歷史大事件的《西雅圖郵報》於昨日發行最後一期紙質報。該報記載了西雅圖從一個木材小鎮發展爲重要港口的變遷，見證了礦工在這裏的酒吧狂歡嬉鬧，之後又前往美國北部阿拉斯加淘金的歷史。

西雅圖成爲繼丹佛之後今年第二個於停辦報紙的大城市。目前美國國內很多報業前景黯淡，這主要因爲在如今的互聯網大興和經濟衰退時期，報紙的廣告收入大幅縮水。

已有146年曆史的《西雅圖郵報》歸赫斯特公司所有，該公司於本週一稱，由於該報常年虧損，公司於今年一月宣佈在60天內出售該報，但最終未能找到買家。

《西雅圖郵報》於1863年創刊，當時西雅圖還是美國的一個“前沿”小鎮。而今西雅圖轉向了另一個“前沿”，那就是純粹的電子報。

發行人羅傑•格爾斯比對編輯們說：“今晚是我們最後一次印報了，大家好好幹吧。”

本週一晚10點鐘過後，《西雅圖郵報》最後一期紙質報紙在郊區的一家印刷廠付印。當天報紙頭版的大字標題爲《讀者就是我們的世界》，並刊登了一幅位於報社樓頂直徑九米的“地球”狀霓虹燈的照片，在“地球”的赤道上繞着一條標語，上面寫道“世界盡在《西雅圖郵報》”。

赫斯特公司的這一舉動使《西雅圖郵報》的最大競爭對手《西雅圖時報》成爲該市唯一一家主流日報。《西雅圖時報》的女發言人吉爾•麥琪稱，該報計劃於當天早晨向《西雅圖郵報》的每位訂戶贈送一份報紙。

丹佛的《落基山新聞報》於本月早些時候停刊，因爲其所屬的E.W. 斯克裏普斯公司未能爲該報找到買家。亞利桑那州甘尼特公司旗下的《圖森市民報》將於本週六停刊，這樣一來該市將僅存一份報紙。

赫斯特公司於上月稱，如果《舊金山紀事報》在未來幾周內不能大幅削減支出，公司將關閉或出售該報。

由於廣告商轉投網絡廣告，尤其是免費或低價的網站分類廣告，近年來美國報業的廣告收入大幅下降。始於去年夏季的經濟衰退加劇了這一狀況，導致各類廣告收入銳減。