So the litigation between the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI has been settled — with the Seattle Times buying out Hearst:
All litigation has been terminated, and the Hearst Corp. will give up its 32 percent contingent interest in the joint-operating agreement for the two newspapers. That 32 percent interest is what Hearst would have received if the P-I folded and the JOA continued.
As part of the settlement, The Seattle Times Co. will give Hearst $49 million to resolve all current claims and to buy back the 32 percent contingent interest, said Paul Luthringer, a Hearst spokesman.
In addition, Hearst will pay the Seattle Times $25 million in exchange for the Seattle Times to agree not to issue any loss notice until at least 2016, according to a Hearst news release.
So to sum up: The Times spent $24 million to have no consequences if the PI goes out of business, and the PI gets until 2016 before the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) can be used to shut them down. So instead of sabotaging the PI via eliminating the JOA, the Times is now free to just bury the PI and force it out of business the old fashion way.
The deal also calls for a Seattle Times Co. executive to work on P-I circulation and subscription issues, Luthringer said. The P-I, he added, will receive “equal treatment” with production, especially with quality and color capacity.
Newspaper delivery trucks will be repainted with both of the newspaper names, or “equal co-branding,” and Hearst reserves the right to take future disagreements to arbitration.
With newspaper circulation plummeting nation wide, I suspect that one of the papers will be gone before 2016…
So Christine Gregoire finally grew a spine and announced that Seattle’s Tunnel Lite is DOA:
Gregoire, in a prepared statement said: “The DOT review has shown that the hybrid tunnel proposal does not meet state and federal safety standards. Furthermore, an accident where people could not escape this tunnel could prove catastrophic.
“To move forward with that option would simply be irresponsible,” she said. “Today we need to move forward with the one option that meets safety standards and is fiscally responsible: the elevated structure.”
Finally - spending an extra billion+ dollars on a project that would not be able to carry as much traffic as the current structure is NOT a viable solution. Of course Nickels-the-Hut, won’t see the light. And to allay the safety concerns of a small tunnel with no escape they’ll reduce the speed limit to 35 mph — that’ll improve the carrying capacity!
“If the state is to save face on the flawed process, they (state leaders) will give the voters a chance to express their opinions,” Bichsel said. “I cannot imagine why legislative leaders or the governor would not pay attention to what the voters of Seattle say about their waterfront.”
Wait. So the voters should get to vote — that’s not what Mayor Hut and the the Council said last fall when they canceled a city wide vote after polls were released showing that 65+% of the city opposed the tunnel option. And of course, even though the bizarre multi-part million dollar vote won’t matter — full speed ahead. Once the tunnel finally gets squashed, the Mayor’s and Council’s secondary solution of “surface streets” will get ramped up:
MacDonald said he didn’t know whether the DOT will be asked to do a further study on the surface plan. “The surface discussion is coming like a freight train,” he said.
So stupid…