The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (popularly known as "the P-I") is one of two daily newspapers in Seattle, Washington, United States.

History

The P-I, Seattle's first newspaper, was founded on December 10, 1863 as the Seattle Gazette by J.R. Watson. The paper failed after a few years and was renamed the Weekly Intelligencer in 1867 by the new owner, Sam Maxwell. In 1881, The Intelligencer merged with the Seattle Post. The names were combined to form the present-day name.

Circulation stood at 31,000 in 1911.

William Randolph Hearst took over the paper in 1921. The Hearst Corporation owns the P-I to this day.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt had a special relationship with the Seattle P-I. In 1936, their son-in-law John Boettiger took over as publisher. He brought his wife Anna, the Roosevelts' daughter, to also work at the paper. Anna became editor of the women's page. Boettiger left Seattle to enter the U.S. Army in April, 1943, while Anna stayed at the paper to help keep a liberal voice in the running of the paper. After Boettiger's absence, the paper increasingly turned conservative with Hearst's new acting publisher. Anna would leave Seattle in December, 1943, to live in the White House with her youngest child, Johnny. This effectively ended the Roosevelt-Boettiger ties with the P-I.

On December 15, 2006 no copies were printed as a result of a power outage caused by the December 2006 Pacific Northwest storms. It was the first time in 70 years that publication had ceased.

Joint Operating Agreement - "JOA"

Since 1983, the P-I and The Seattle Times have been run under a "Joint Operating Agreement" (JOA) whereby advertising, production, marketing, and circulation are run for both papers by the Seattle Times Co. They maintain separate news and editorial departments. The papers publish a combined Sunday edition, although the Times handles the majority of the editorial content while the P-I only provides a small editorial/opinions section.

In 2003 Times tried to cancel the JOA, citing a clause in the JOA that three consecutive years of profit losses were cause for cancelling the agreement. Hearst disagreed and immediately filed suit to prevent the Times from cancelling the agreement. Hearst argued that a force majeure clause prevented the Times from claiming losses in 2000 and 2001 as reason to end the JOA, because they resulted from extraordinary events (in this case, a seven week newspaper strike). Each side publicly accused the other of attempting to put its rival out of business. The trial judge granted a summary judgment in Hearst's favor on the force majeure issue. But after two appeals, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Times on June 30, 2005, on the force majeure clause, reversing the trial court judge. Both papers settled the issue on April 16, 2007.