The demise of the nearly 150-year-old Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper is a loss. The Reporter and community papers like ours across the United States are fostered and continually enriched by the heritage of the metropolitan papers in our realm. Their daily presence and emphasis on regional and global events have freed up community papers to focus solely on local events, schools, city government and the stories of our own residents. While we bristle when a story pops up in the PI or The Seattle Times about an Island resident or event, taking away our scoop, we redouble our efforts to catch up. They inspire us, anger us, inform us and goad us on.

Many deride the fact that newspapers in print have hung in so long, pointing toward a resistance to going to a Web format and arrogance. Yet we would suggest that newspapers have long been more interested in reporting the news rather than the presentation of the news — a virtue, we’d say. Newspapers as a whole have steadily migrated to the Web and have gained readers, valuable input and a new point of view.

The realm of the Web represents the notion that all can contribute to the flow of information and that media should be accessible and free to all; both laudable goals. Yet good news organizations cost money. It remains to be seen if online news organizations have the expertise and will to take on politicians, vested interests and sacred cows day after day, week after week, year after year, and be financially viable.

To be sure, there are hundreds, even thousands of viewpoints to ponder on the World Wide Web. And just like newspapers, some will do a better job than others. No matter what we read, just knowing there are choices and additional sources of news is part of the riches of living in a democracy.

It is our hope that the PI will indeed have an online presence that will continue its 146 years of tradition.