This one was different.

On Monday, the staff at the Seattle P-I was told that the paper was being put up for sale. If a buyer was not found, the paper would either fold or it would move to an online-only production.

Feel free to watch the entire heartbreaking announcement.

Editor Dave McCumber has started a blog called Sixty Days. It’s a really good read, by the way. For years the P-I has told the stories of Seattleites. Now, McCumber tells the stories of the newsroom. With only 60 53(?) days, you can be sure he won’t have time to tell them all.

With this in mind, an emergency SPJ meetup was called (like we ever need an excuse to get together and drink beer, hah). I wanted to show support for friends who work there. So after work I drove to the Whym Diner, not sure what to expect.

It was a somber gathering. But there was also hope. Monica Guzman told me about a plan while holding a ball gown she planned to take with her to the inauguration in D.C.

Thursday, a group of people got together and brainstormed ideas to save the P-I. The result is this page, no news is bad news. It’s pretty bare bones so far, but there’s a lot of potential. I signed up, and am waiting to see if I can do anything to help.

They’ve already got a Twitter hash tag, #nnbn, and a Flickr Page.

Toward the end of my time at the meetup, I was talking with a Seattle Times online worker, whom I’ve never met. As we were talking, I saw the Seattle P-I globe peeking out from between two buildings. If I hadn’t stood in that exact spot, the globe would not have been visible.

The text that rotates around the globe usually states “It’s in the P-I,”but due to damage from winter weather, the “t” in “It’s” was unlit. Will the globe go completely dark? I would like to think not. There are a lot of passionate people who want to see the P-I continue, and I am among them.

But for me, it’s not because it’s the P-I, though I love their online content and the several friends I’ve made there. For every news organization that folds, fewer stories are told and fewer governments and organizations are held accountable. Who will be the voice of record? The PR people? The spin doctors? They won’t get away with that if a good journalist is doing his or her job.

I know the Times will still be around, and that guy I talked to seemed frustrated that nobody cared about the Times. The Times newsroom has probably had probably about 80 layoffs or buyouts in 2008 alone and is likely relying on attrition to balance the 2009 budget. The challenge of the Times is more subtle. Competition makes everyone stronger, and the Times will be less by the loss of the P-I.

Keep an eye on no news is bad news, folks. There are a lot of people who talk the talk about saving journalism. It’s time to walk the walk. We have 53 days and counting.

It may come as a shock to some that newspapers need to make money. Yes, we are the guardians of the First Amendment, a voice for the voiceless and the afflicters of the comfortable.

Newsrooms everywhere are in a downward spiral. Tampa Tribune editor in chief Janet Coats, according to blogger and news intern Jessica DaSilva, decided to reorganize the newsroom and reprioritize the newspaper’s coverage.

Essentially, it’s a shakeup of the traditional beat system. From Mindy McAdams’ blog:

• Managing editors
• 5-6 audience editors — keep in touch with what the print, TV, online audiences want/need
• 5 sections of reporting (all the reporters for print, TV and Web are mashed up together in these groups):

1. Deadline — for breaking/daily news
2. Data — specifically for database stuff
3. Watchdog — for investigative reporting
4. Personal journalism — stuff for people’s every day lives like weather, health, entertainment
5. Grassroots — citizen journalism

Outside of these groups are three “finishing” groups for print, TV and online to determine what stories should be covered and with what medium.

Read more of McAdams’ blog. I really like how she lays out the system for news coverage.

DeSilvas continues with some reaction from the newsroom on the day of the announcement:

“People need to stop looking at TBO.com as an add on to The Tampa Tribune,” (Coats) said. “The truth is that The Tampa Tribune is an add on to TBO.”

Wow. Someone said that? And that someone was the editor in chief? But wait… there’s more.

She continued from this point, saying she wasn’t sure, but that this had to be a step in the right direction. If we don’t move, she said, newspapers will continue their “death spiral – because that’s what this is.”

…

That’s how the news is, she said. There is a high demand for it, but with abundant access to it, it’s time to rethink how we can carve out a niche. Her idea? Hyperlocal journalism.

If they want national news, they have several national news sources to get it. Instead, the Trib should be used to give the community something they can’t get from the NY Times or WaPo. Give them their news.

Local content is the bread and butter of community papers, something larger newspapers are starting to realize. But community papers are starting to feel the pinch too, as I pointed out yesterday.

With all of the scares in the news industry, we need bold leaders who are not afraid to shake up the status quo. We need reporters who are not afraid to hold a microphone, or try to shoot a video. We also need a funding mechanism that works.

Granted, not everyone is happy. Sports reporters are calling it Black Wednesday, mostly because it eliminates the sports department and rolls every reporter together. Some reporters might work on sports assignments and they might work on city hall coverage. If that assessment is true, it’s a shakeup indeed, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

The LA Times is cutting 150 newsroom jobs and is reducing published pages by 15 percent. The Minneapolis Star Tribune union is working to cut 10 percent from the newsroom budget.

I thought community newspapers were relatively immune. But this downturn in the economy (not a recession?) has proved me wrong. Something is happening, and even my paper is not immune.

I do appreciate my editors’ candor. They give us regular updates on how the paper is doing with ad and subscription sales. Without giving away too many details, reporters have been told to watch their mileage (41 cents a mile now) and watch the number of hours they work past 7 p.m. (we get a 50-cent boost in pay for each hour between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.). We also have an open business reporter position that may remain open for quite some time.

But I am not one to complain without attempting to find a silver lining — or a solution. The silver lining: We are holding steady on circulation.

One thing is clear: we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results (Einstein quote). I’m not so sure about the solution.
McClatchy has started a wiki called McClatchy Next. Check out the folders on the sidebar: Philosophia, Ideas that did not work (empty), Ideas that might not work, Ideas that worked and Mad as hell.

In the Mad as hell section, Julia O’Malley posted some interesting comments:

It doesn’t help that right now people are so demoralized. Everybody’s checking their retirement accounts and surfing for jobs in public relations. There’s this sense among the rank and file that the concern on the corporate level is survival and survival alone. The message in the layoffs was that no matter how talented or enthusiastic someone is, no matter how committed to the mission, that won’t help them keep their jobs. How can you send a message like that, then expect people to be super excited to come to work?

I agree, but I also think it’s better to know what you’re up against instead of in the dark and suddenly get hit broadside by layoffs.

Nick Eaton from The Spokesman-Review posted that his organization is throwing eight “young journalists” together to reinvent their newsroom. The eight journalists are to change how content flows through the newsroom. The catch: Do it in 11 days.

As Steve (Smith, Eaton’s editor) has said, the current structure no longer works. A strengthening focus on the web coupled with layoffs in the fall has put the traditional newsroom in disarray.

Colin Mulvany posted about this initiative on his blog earlier in the week.

(Smith) asked each of them, who basically have no stake in the processes of the past, to suggest ways to streamline the newsroom operation. He wants them to find a way to make it more efficient, thus letting people spend more time on developing quality journalism instead of just shoveling content.

Shoveling content. That’s a good phrase. Yesterday I finally caught up to my backlog of stories that I had been trying to finish since the end of the school year, about a month’s worth.

The only way this can change is if we change our priorities. I cannot pretend to know what those priorities should be. I constantly hear that online news doesn’t pay the bills, and yet that’s where most of our competition is.

What is the answer? I don’t think anyone knows. But at least some people are trying.

“We must all hang together, or assuredly, we will all hang separately.” — Thomas Jefferson

In this year alone — and it’s not even half over — More than 4,400 news jobs have been slashed across the country. Check out this great Google Map of the layoffs (Thanks CyberJournalist).

More recently, McClatchy announced a 10 percent cut in their work force. I’m surrounded by McClatchy papers here in Washington: Bellingham, Olympia, Tacoma and Kennewick. The Bellingham Herald announced Monday that it is in talks with my paper, the Skagit Valley Herald, to print their paper after we move to our new building (see the building cam down on the right side of the Web page). We’re moving in sometime this fall/winter, and could start printing the Bellingham Herald sometime in 2009.
I’ve always had a dream of writing for the Washington Post or the New York Times (never going to happen, I hate the East Coast). But now I’m not so sure.

I understand newspapers are a business. I understand about cutting back. I know the prices for gas and newsprint and even ink are soaring. If newspapers are too busy chasing a stock price, how can you serve the reader?

Why have community newspapers fared so well compared to the big metros? Is it because the managers know you as a person instead of a number on a spreadsheet? Is it because of a more loyal readership? Advertisers in small communities are less aware of Internet advertising options? Hyper-local content?

Maybe it’s all of those things.

Or maybe it’s because community papers don’t chase a stock price, and they don’t have anyone to answer to but themselves.

This post has been modified from its original version.