The winners are...

I had 26 submissions and only three copies (if you don’t include my own) of the final edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer to give-away. Most of you made VERY compelling arguments about why you should win this contest and a few, well, didn’t really try that hard at all.

Here’s some of the lack-luster efforts:

I never read the paper, but would like to. 

I just want to make some money. What do you have against that? 

Hmm… my dog ate my last copy. I swear. No, really!

This guy is just down-right mean:

I would line my birdcage with this rag. Should have died a long time ago. Good riddance.

Now, here’s the moment you all have been waiting for (play drum roll in your mind)…

The winners are:

1. I would donate my copy to the annual fund-raising auction for Old Mill Center for Children and Families, a school for developmentally challenged children. The Center is in Corvallis, Oregon, and I know has many ex-Seattleites who would be interested in bidding on the P.I. Thanks for the opportunity.
2. My son Alex is doing a report for school. They are studying the various different news sources as part of a communications class. He decided to write his report about newspapers. They just assigned the project and he's just starting to gather information. He and I were just talking about how people are starting to move away from printed materials. The future lies in devices like Kindle. If I win this I will give it to my son for his report.
3. Wow. I live in Florida, and I just heard today about the demise of the Post-Intelligencer. I never read a print copy, but when I was a broadcast news producer, I learned that I couldn't always trust the truncated AP broadcast wires, and for breaking news out of Seattle, I visited the PI website to read the full accounts of what was going on. Sure, I get a lot of my news online (I rarely even see TV news since leaving the biz), but I still feel great sadness at seeing a publishing institution fall by the wayside. Yes, times change, but saving a printout from the computer (or saving the file) is not the same as pulling a yellowed piece of newsprint out of a scrapbook to recall a world-changing event, a personal accomplishment, or the life and death of a loved one. I'm sorry for Seattle's loss, and I mourn the decline of the print media in America.

Sorry to all of you who didn’t win. It wasn’t easy picking from among your stories. One lady even twisted her ankle as she prepared to do battle for the last copy in a newspaper box. I almost gave it to her so that she would have something to read while icing that ankle.

The good news is that I decided to give away my own personal copy in a couple weeks to a random Twitter follower (my user name is SEABlogger). I really just wanted to hold the final edition in my hands and have the opportunity to read it cover-to-cover.

One final word of thanks to this contests benefactor who himself is unemployed and could have joined others on E-bay who are seeking to profit personally. He’s been a great friend to this blog and, hopefully, we can become personal ones too.

Former P-I writers turn to cyberspace

Curt Milton, a former P-I staffer and owner of Infinite Zoom, reports that many former P-I writers are opening up shop on the information super-highway.

Several of my friends from the P-I are starting their own blogs now that the paper has closed. I'm starting a list on this blog so others can find them... They are the best at what they do and worth a look.

Check out his blog roll, here!

A victory for ethics in Seattle? We'll soon see

The Seattle Fire Department's Lt. Milton Footer is on administrative leave after KOMO TV uncovered his failure to bill $195,679 to Qwest Field and other local venues for city services. He is also accused of abusing his power to get two backstage passes to a 2007 Hannah Montana concert for him and his fiance.

Equally troubling is the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission's finding that "potential for misconduct is extremely high" under the leadership of Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean. An earlier review by Dean suggested that Footer's actions were an "honest mistake."

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels promised to assign an outside investigator to look into the matter. "I'm going to take the actions I think are necessary to ensure that the fire department is doing its job appropriately, honestly and in a timely manner," he said. "Will the chief's job be on the line? We'll see what the ethics commission has to say."

Now, the whistle-blower behind the ethic commission's investigation, Battalion Chief James Woodbury, is claiming he was demoted from deputy chief and assistant fire marshal after he filed his complaint against Footer in January.

Clearly there are bad apples in every bunch. First responders of course are no different. However, we should do our best to strengthen our procedures and policies to discourage a culture of corruption or incompetency -- whatever the case may be. A whistle-blower, no matter how embarrassing his or her complaint can become, should be honored for bucking the social conventions that restrain truth telling and encourage abuse.

I hope the mayor is sincere in his desire to uncover the truth, both the good and the ugly. As the saying goes, those who don't learn from their mistakes are likely to repeat them.

Win your copy of the final P-I

I am offering an original copy of the final edition of theSeattle Post-Intelligencerprinted on Tuesday to three readers who either 

1. have the best story about looking to find the last edition 
2. have the most altruistic intentions
3. have the best plan to personally promote this blog. 

E-mail your entry to SEABlogger@SeattleBlogger.com or post below and include your e-mail address in your entry. Winners will be announced Friday at 5 PM.

Soccer madness coming to Seattle?

Anyone who has had the honor of seeing a professional soccer match in Europe knows that the fans take the event VERY seriously.

I had the luck of attending a game in Hamburg, Germany and found the security to be akin to a NYC airport after 9-11-01. Everyone goes through metal detectors, fans are funneled into a series of fenced off areas to observe the game. A line of police, some with vicious looking police dogs, line the field.

USA Today reports that the soccer madness may be coming to Seattle when the MLS expansion team Seattle Sounders FC makes its debut on Thursday. The newspaper quotes Drew Carey, comedian and part owner of the Sounders, who plans to have a marching band, Sound Wave, lead fans from a local park four blocks to Qwest Field for a game.

The idea came from fan representatives. The soccer club avidly solicits input from its fans like no other MLS team. Carey said that this will be the philosophy behind the club.

"Not only are we letting them burn down the castle, we're giving them pitchforks and torches to do it," Carey said.

Greed and final P-I

There is a special place in hell for people who raided P-I boxes this morning. Furthermore, I suggest you say 10 hail Marys if you bought a paper for .75 cents and are now selling your copy for $50 or more. God, goddess or gods -- you fill in the blank -- is frowning upon you! As much as I want a copy of the final edition of the P-I and feel my life is incomplete without one, I will NEVER pay more than $5 for it. A profit is one thing, but greed is another.

UPDATE (3/18/09, 7:51 AM): A former P-I staffer and fan of this blog offered to meet me for coffee and give me a copy of the final P-I. Sorry for sounding like a bitter blogger!

Death of a newspaper

The final print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is out on the streets -- if you can find one that is.

I spent the morning visiting one empty PI box after another and every store along my route from home to work was sold-out as well.

The good news... I hear there will be a second distribution this afternoon. In the worst case scenerio, I have a few contacts on the black market who may be able to help.

Josh Trujillio, a P-I photographer, noted that the final edition includes some humor from the obituary section. Among the obits you will find the P-I itself.

POST-INTELLIGENCER: Seattle, 146, of Seattle, March 17.