As the three-year-old legal dispute between the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer comes to an end, credible sources have been talking about the likely closure of Washington's oldest morning newspaper, the Seattle P-I, writes The Stranger (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Other than the members of Seattle's Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town and the 200 union newspaper employees who would lose their jobs, no one is really that upset, the article claims. Prof. John McManus of San Jose State University's School of Journalism foresees more paperless newspapers - a possible move for P-I.

Talk has spread that the paper may leap directly to web as the nation's first major daily published exclusively on the internet. However, the company has not disclosed any formal discussion of its future plans.

"If you just look at the picture of these big newspapers it's just, 'Oh, woe is us, this industry is dying, bad,'" says Daniel Gross, a financial analysts and writer for Slate and the New York Times. However, he adds, the "absolute explosion" of other types of media brings news to the Seattle area through more blogs devoted to local news and politics, two alternative weeklies, and more glossy magazines focused on city life.

The Times filed suit in 2003 to end the Joint Operating Agreement between the two papers - which allows the two newsrooms shared access to printing, distribution, and ad-sales operations. Since then, the P-I's circulation has fallen 15 percent to 133,000, while the Times has an estimated 216,000 daily readers.