One year ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition and became an online-only publication. As news organizations experiment with new business models, Hearst’s experience in Seattle may offer lessons.

In a piece last year about the change, SeattlePI.com Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi asked, “Is it possible to run an online-only local news site that serves a city’s readers well while turning a profit?”

Linda Thomas of KIRO-FM spoke with Hearst Seattle Media General Manager Pat Balles and reported that the site is not yet profitable:

“[Balles] says they’re on track to make a profit, though he won’t say when. Hearst Corporation is a privately-held company, and [Balles] says stock holders will be the first to know when they’ve turned the corner. At the least, he says, they are not bleeding $1 million a month they lost with the print operation. It’s estimated that in 2008 Hearst lost $14 million in Seattle.

” ‘I like to think of it as it’s an ATM that maybe the parent company was making deposits into. Eventually they’d like to get a withdrawal out of this ATM, this investment, and I think it’s totally viable to do that,’ Balles says.”

For Full Story

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By Media Matters For America

The latest non-profit news outlet aimed at investigative reporting may well be FairWarning.org.

The brainchild of former Los Angeles Times reporters Myron Levin and Joanna Lin, the outfit plans to investigate issues involving safety, health and corporate conduct.

“The hope is to provide stories of vital public interest that are overlooked or under-reported in most media,” says Levin, 61, who spent 23 years at the Times before taking a buyout in 2008. “We want to do what little we can to help fill the gap in robust, deeply reported stories that is left by the contraction of media.”

Levin, who says the project has some $250,000 in donations for at least its first year, will be in the model of ProPublica or other recently created non-profit news outlets. Major donors include the Ethics and Excellence Journalism Foundation and the Charles Evans Foundation.

With three part-time students from U.C.-Berkeley and U.S.C. and a small office in Sherman Oaks, Calif., the organizers hope to formally launch in about two weeks.

The Web site is already up at www.fairwarning.org.

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Here are the results of the Guild Elections

• Co-Chair News: Freddie Kunkle

• Co-Chair Commercial: Darlene Meyer

• Vice Chair News: Renae Merle

• Vice Chair Commercial: Mike Gronowski

• Vice Chair News Night: Open

• Vice Chair Commercial Night: Amy Quinto

• Vice Chair News Digital: Whitney Shefte

• Vice Chair Commercial Digital: Renada Jackson

• Secretary: Del Wilber

• Grievance Chair: Stephen Richardson

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Guild Membership Meetings

To Nominate Post Guild

Officers

Wednesday, February 24

*12 Noon

*1 PM

*9 PM

At the Guild office, 1100 15th St. NW

^{Suite 350}

^{Nominations will be taken for the following positions:}

^{Co-Chair News Co-Chair Commercial}

^{Vice Chair News Vice Chair Commercial}

^{Vice Chair News Night Vice Chair Commercial Night}

^{Vice Chair News Digital Vice Chair Commercial Digital}

^Secretary

^{Grievance Chair}

^{Guild-covered former WPNI, now Washington Post employees are encouraged to attend. If you haven’t already joined the Guild, you may do so at the door.}

^{WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE NEWSPAPER GUILD}

^{1100 15th  Street NW, Suite 350 (202) 785-3650)}

^{POSTGUILD.ORG}

————————————————————————————————————————————

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Journalism isn’t a science, but it’s the setting for a grand experiment. The hypothesis: that you can dismantle the venerable institutions of journalism while preserving the accountability and integrity they represent.

Well, that hypothesis hasn’t been faring so well lately. In the past couple weeks, three online news organizations have illustrated different but related dangers of practicing high-impact journalism without the safeguards of a traditional newsroom.

Over the weekend, the Business Insider reported that New York Gov. David Paterson was hours away from resigning in response to a bombshell story that The New York Times was about to publish. But the story has yet to appear, and Paterson remains very much in office.

This week, an established investigative reporter for The Daily Beast, Gerald Posner, was suspended and then resigned after multiple instances in which he had plagiarized his reporting had come to light.

Read more

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Washington Post Guild members  Lyndsey Layton, Joe Stephens and  Lena H. Sun  were named one of six finalists for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting at Harvard University.

The announcement was issued Friday (Jan. 29) by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Joe Stephens/facebook

The winner of the $25,000 prize will be announced at an awards ceremony on March 23 at Harvard Kennedy School.  The other five finalist will receive $10,000.

The announcement noted:

“Reporters from The Washington Post uncovered repeated lapses in safety in Washington’s Metro subway system and a systemic breakdown in safety oversight. As a result of the Post series, the Metro has instituted sweeping reorganization; there has been a congressional demand for reform, and in a historic step, the federal government announced it would move to take over regulation of subways and light rail systems across the nation.”

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