Portland Press Herald article on Media Consolidation

[Mark Laurence]

On Dec 5, 2004, at 6:45 PM, Daniel Billings wrote:

> My suspicion is that Mr. Blethen's real concern is competition.  There 
> has been talk that the joint operating agreement in Seattle might fall 
> apart. Who better to run the other newspaper than a company that owns 
> one of the TV stations in town?

If the JOA fell apart, the Blethens would be the winners.  Their 
Seattle Times is the dominant paper in town, and without a JOA the Post 
Intelligencer would be gone in a year or two.  Blethen has been 
battling the agreement since 2003.  The P-I is about as attractive a 
media property as WBIX.

Mark