© The Stranger, 2002

In an attempt to combat a recent spate of sharp circulation declines that threaten the long-term survival of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, two weeks ago P-I Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby informed staffers that the paper's management was launching a major visual redesign of the ailing daily. The effort, still in its nascent stages, is geared to more sharply differentiate the Hearst-owned P-I in readers' eyes from its bitter crosstown rival, the Seattle Times.

Though the decision to undertake the redesign came before the early November release of the latest circulation figures, the continued erosion of the P-I's numbers throws the potential make-or-break nature of the effort into sharp relief. For the six months ending September 30, the Monday-Friday average for the P-I was 157,588, a hefty 6.8 percent drop from the same period last year. During the same period, the Times' weekday circulation rose 1.9 percent to 224,140.

The redesign idea, sources say, was born out of a secret Seattle newspaper readership survey conducted by Hearst earlier this year. The results of that survey showed that the P-I's core loyal readership skewed noticeably older than the Times'. The paper's leadership fears that without significant changes, demographic realities will threaten the paper's existence in the long term, no matter what happens more immediately.

What shape the P-I redesign will take is still an open question. Some P-I sources not directly involved with the redesign effort speculate that the paper may move toward a more tabloid-like feel, with bigger, bolder headlines, more color, and shorter, pithier stories. They point to the fact that trends in national daily newspaper readership over the last few decades have proven that traditionally configured broadsheets fail to reach younger readers, which, combined with the Hearst internal readership survey, may drive a turn in that direction. They also point to Chicago, where the two competing dailies, in a quest for younger readers, have introduced competing splashy tabloids (RedEye and Red Streak) that might influence the P-I's new look. The redesigned P-I, though, will remain a broadsheet.

But such speculation about where the P-I redesign is headed may be premature and unfounded. While a Hearst spokesman in New York declined to comment when asked about the changes, a source directly knowledgeable about the effort said it was far too early to tell what the revamped P-I would look like.

The source pointed out that daily newspaper redesigns are major undertakings, requiring intensive research, planning, and testing of multiple potential looks. It could be many months, the source asserted, before those in charge of the effort settle on a general template for the new-look P-I, and perhaps a year before the redesigned paper reaches newsstands. Asked if the look of the new Chicago tabs offers a glimpse of the future, the source said that while everyone in the newspaper industry was following that experiment closely, the P-I redesign would be an effort unto itself, and could go in a variety of directions.

Though Hearst would not comment on the redesign, the company did issue a short statement from Oglesby about the latest circulation drop. The statement read: "While the P-I's circulation has declined, it continues to have a 41 percent share of the combined weekday circulation of the P-I and the Times, according to data submitted this week to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. In readership terms, the P-I's share is larger--about 46 percent.... The P-I is committed to smart editorial innovation. That is our future."

The cause of the P-I's ongoing decline in circulation has provoked fierce accusations and rampant speculation. P-I insiders are nearly unanimous in angrily claiming that they believe the Seattle Times Company--which, due to the terms of a joint operating agreement (JOA) between the papers, controls the P-I's marketing and circulation--has undermarketed and otherwise subverted their paper's circulation in favor of the Times. They are, however, unable to provide any conclusive evidence, instead citing a slew of personal anecdotes involving the relative newsstand placements of the rival papers, the positioning of newspaper boxes, telemarketers offering better deals on the Times, or even pushing the paper on potential subscribers who express a preference for the P-I, and the like.

Asked about such charges, Times spokesperson Kerry Coughlin forcefully denies that the Times has violated the terms of the JOA or otherwise failed to treat the two papers equally. The positioning accusations are simply untrue, she contends. As to the question of telemarketers promoting one paper over the other, she says the company hires separate outside companies to tout promotion deals and sell subscriptions for each paper, and this practice may have created deceptive appearances in some call recipients' minds. The Times' position was made clear in a recent memo to staffers from Times Publisher Frank Blethen, in which he stated his belief that the P-I's declining circulation is a manifestation of market forces shifting to favor the Times after its move to morning publication.

As The Stranger reported recently ["One-Newspaper Town?" Sandeep Kaushik, Oct 3], the P-I also faces a more looming threat; Blethen has told Times staffers that he is seriously considering invoking clauses in the JOA (the Times and P-I compete editorially while sharing business operations) that he believes will stand a good chance of killing off the P-I.

If invoked, the JOA terms allow Blethen, following three consecutive years of losses (as the Times claims it will likely have experienced come next January), to force Hearst to negotiate the closure of the P-I in exchange for 32 percent of the Times' profits through 2083--or, should Hearst refuse, to require that the company provide all of the P-I's noneditorial operations on its own after an 18-month negotiating window expires. Hearst, however, has made it clear that it does not believe Blethen has cause to invoke the relevant clauses.

sandeep@thestranger.com