The Seattle PI and More Oregon Businesses Having Trouble

Today marks a sad but current trend that happening to a lot of newspapers in the United States. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is going web only and halting its printing presses completly. It had been printing newspapers for the last 146 years making it Seattle's oldest business when it started in December 1863. That is a long time ago and time have changed radically since then. Though the presses may be stopped, The Hearst Corp. which own the newspapers rights said that it would keep seattlepi.com and make it the nation's largest web only newspaper. The Seattle P-I might the largest newspaper to go web only, but it is not the only one in trouble. Here is list of the 10 most endangered newspapers in the country right now. Number 6 on that list is the San Francisco Chronicle, which is also own by Hearst. This might be the second major newspaper in the Northwest to go web only. Even some of the smaller Northwest papers like The News Tribune Tacoma, and The Olympian are cutting back staff and reducing payroll. I know that there are a lot of websites and other newspapers from which to get your news on a daily basis, but this is truly an odd and groundbreaking day in the Northwest.

Here in Oregon, more and more companies are feeling the weight of the recession such as Weyerhaeuser Lumber Mill and Lithia Motors. Weyerhaeuser is shutting down its lumber mill in Dallas, Oregon due the lack of demand for wood to build homes. This ties right into the housing market that is not recession proof either. Medford based, Lithia Motors on the other hand is reporting a loss of $252.6 million for 2008. Since the midyear announcement, Lithia has sold 17 of it stores and is looking to sell 12 more. That is bad news for those in the automotive industry.

The news does not get any better for the state of Oregon as it was announced on Monday that the unemployment rate is now 10.8% in Oregon. This is the first time that Oregon's unemployment has been in double digits since 1984. That is 25 years folks! Here is another article on the subject. However, the numbers that are reported might be off, but in the wrong direction. They might actually be higher than intially thought. That can not be exciting to hear, but at the Employment Guide, we are always here to help.

So in closing Portland, what are your thoughts on the Seattle P-I becoming the largest web only newspaper? And, what are your thoughts about the businesses that are hurting and directly effecting other markets? Let us know in the comments below.