Here’s a “no kidding” story from The New York Times: The Seattle Times, now the only newspaper in town and privately owned, after cutting hundreds of positions, is turning a profit.
“On a month-to-month basis, we are starting to operate in the black,” Frank A. Blethen, the publisher and chief executive of The Seattle Times Company, told The NYT. The Times is one of the last family-run papers in the country, controlled since 1896 by the Blethens. They own 50.5 percent of the company (the McClatchy Company owns the rest).
The Times had a joint operating agreement with The Seattle Post Intelligencer, which closed in March. The Hearst Corporation kept the P-I’s Web site alive as a news operation with a small staff at SeattlePI.com.
The Seattle paper has cut more than 200 newsroom positions and raised its prices in March, increasing circulation revenue. With most P-I readers on board, Times executives say they have been able to maintain the ad rates they charged for space in both papers. The volume and revenue were down sharply, but Blethen said the decline was consistent with what had happened across the industry.