Tuesday evening I attended the Seattle P-I Sports Star of the Year banquet at the Westin Hotel. It was the 74th year of the event started by late great P-I sportswriter Royal Brougham.
It was an entertaining night where the achievements of some outstanding athletes from college and pro sports were highlighted with video presentations and one-on-one interviews with emcee Steve Raible, KIRO news anchor and the voice of the Seattle Seahawks. Steve does a great job as emcee. Comedian Rod Long was there as well to deliver a funny monologue.
There was a lot of buzz about the inauguration of Barack Obama. Most of the people I talked with felt positive about the new resident of the White House. There was much talk about “a new day”.
But there was also a somber feeling. There’s a good chance that this is the last year for the P-I Sports Star of the Year awards. By now, you’re probably aware that the paper is up for sale and the likelihood of finding a new buyer is slim.
I talked with several P-I staffers and it seemed that all of them were still in shock. I asked sports columnist Art Thiel about the mood in the newsroom. Not a good question to ask. I’m hoping Art will be joining this week on Connects to discuss the situation. We have booked his colleague Joel Connelly to appear on this week’s show.
A number of people I spoke with last night were talking about the possibility of Seattle becoming a no newspaper town. The Seattle Times has been having financial troubles too and people are wondering if it can survive. Some think not.
The idea of no major newspaper in Seattle seems unthinkable. Newspapers and other media are vital to our democracy. We’ll talk about this possibility on this week’s show.
What are your thoughts? Please let me know.
Comments
Posted by cash advance (not verified) on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 10:54pm
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Posted by Around the Sound... (not verified) on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 9:35pm
Do you think that online news sites are the wave of the future, not only for Seattle, but for many cities? I have been wondering (since the introduction of the Kindle and e-books in general) if book publishing may follow suit one day as well. Do you think that this will be the case?
Posted by Enrique Cerna (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 2:01pm
Around The Sound,
Unfortunately, I do think that will happen in the future. It's all about money and right now the financial future for many newspapers is not good.
I think web will also play a big role for other media.
At our station, we're continuing to build our web presence and putting more of our local programs on the web for viewing. More and more people, especially younger folks, are turning to the web for viewing television content.
-Enrique
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