Seattle Times: 'Adapt or Die'

Yesterday the Puget Sound Business Journal broke the story of a memo circulated among Seattle Times staffers saying the paper is facing up to $33 million in losses through 2008. Cuts are expected, though publisher Frank Blethen didn't specify who would be facing the ax.

Today the Times picked up their own story adding that the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild was hearing rumors that bureaus, including Bothell and Washington, DC, might be feeling the squeeze. The Blethen family owns 50.5 percent of the Times, with McClatchy holding the remaining shares.

McClatchy is declining to comment on the memo, but the company has written down the value of their stake in the Times, according to the Post-Intelligencer. And other problems at the Times have caused the Sacramento-based company's earnings to take a hit.

The Times quotes Blethen saying the paper has three options: sell, shut down, or transform to a "smaller, more focused organization."

"We must adapt or die and it isn't an easy challenge," he says.