Seattle Times Going Non-Profit? David Horsey Offers Potential Reasons for P-I Sale

Seattle P-I cartoonist David Horsey was on KUOW's Weekday this morning and offered some interesting theories for Hearst's decision to sell the P-I. (To listen, make sure you click on the links below the photograph, not in the upper corner of the page.) Perhaps the most notable is a rumor that Frank Blethen has been soliciting investors to turn the Seattle Times into a non-profit, and that Hearst's decision to sell the P-I indicates that he's been successful.

He also noted that Hearst recently lost a bunch of money investing in East Coast papers owned by a guy named Dean Singleton. This cost CEO Vic Gansey his job, and Gansey was one of the key players in re-negotiating the P-I/Times Joint Operating Agreement. Finally, he notes that Hearst may have learned a lesson by outlasting and buying a family-owned paper, The San Francisco Chronicle, only to find itself losing tons of money.