Media in Seattle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seattle, Washington supports a multitude of media, from long-established newspapers, television and radio stations to a continually evolving panoply of smaller local art, culture, neighborhood and political publications, filmmaking and most recently Internet media development.

1 Newspapers
2 Television
3 Magazines
4 Radio
5 Internet
6 Movies
7 References

[edit] Newspapers

The old Seattle Times building in downtown Seattle is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Seattle's two major daily newspapers are the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer; they share their advertising, circulation, and business departments under a Joint Operating Agreement.^[1] The local Blethen family owns 50.5% of the Times,^[2] with the other 49.5% owned by the McClatchy Company;^[3] the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is owned by the Hearst Corporation.^[1] There are also the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. The Daily of the University of Washington, the University of Washington's school paper, published when school is in session.

The most prominent weeklies are the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger. Both consider themselves "alternative" papers. The Stranger (founded 1992) is locally owned and has a reputation for carrying a younger and hipper readership. The Weekly (founded 1976) has a longstanding reputation for in-depth coverage of high arts and local politics. It was purchased in 2000 by Village Voice Media, which in turn was acquired in 2005 by New Times Media. New Times Media has decreased the Weekly's emphasis on politics.^[4] Other weekly papers are the Seattle Gay News; and Real Change, a weekly activist paper sold by homeless and low income people. The Puget Sound Business Journal covers the local economy. The Rocket, a long-running weekly paper devoted to the music scene, stopped publishing in 2000.

Headquarters of The Facts.

Seattle is also home to several ethnic newspapers. Among these are the African American papers The Facts and the Seattle Medium; the Asian American papers the Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattle Chinese Post, and the International Examiner; and the JTNews (formerly the Jewish Transcript). There are also numerous neighborhood newspapers, such as the Seattle Sun and Star, the West Seattle Herald, the Ballard News-Tribune, North Seattle Journal, and the papers of the Pacific Publishing Company, which include the Queen Anne News, Magnolia News, North Seattle Herald-Outlook, Capitol Hill Times, Beacon Hill News & South District Journal, and the Madison Park Times.

[edit] Television

Seattle is home to numerous television stations. The major network affiliates are KOMO 4 (ABC), KING 5 (NBC), KIRO 7 (CBS), KCTS 9 (PBS) and KCPQ 13 (Fox), which are also seen across Canada via digital cable and satellite providers. Also broadcasting in English are KSTW 11 (The CW), KONG 16 (Independent), KTBW 20 (TBN), KMYQ 22 (MyNetworkTV), KBTC 28 (PBS), KWPX 33 (ION).^[5] most of these can be seen in Canada via digital cable or satellite. There are also two Spanish-language stations: KUNS 51 (Univision) and KHCV 45 (Azteca America).

Seattle cable viewers also receive CBUT 2 (CBC) from Vancouver, British Columbia, often as cable channel 99.

[edit] Magazines

Two locally owned magazines for parents, ParentMap Newsmagazine and Seattle's Child, are published monthly. The multiethnic glossy Colors NW publishes a companion Colors NW video podcast. Seattle Magazine and Seattle Metropolitan, local lifestyle magazines, are published monthly. Northwest Woman Magazine is a regional bi-monthly publication for the northwest woman.

[edit] Radio

Antennas in Capitol Hill

Some of Seattle's most popular commercial radio stations according to Arbitron ratings^{[citation needed]} and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer include:^[5]

KBKS-FM 106.1 (Contemporary Hits/Top-40)
KCMS-FM 105.3 (Contemporary Christian)
KBSG-FM 97.3 (oldies)
KING-FM 98.1 (classical music), one of the last commercial classical music stations in the United States.
KIRO-AM 710 (news, talk)
KISW-FM 99.9 (rock)
KMPS-FM 94.1 (country music)
KNDD 107.7 (alternative)
KOMO-AM 1000 (news, sports)
KPTK AM 1090 (talk)
KRWM 106.9 (soft rock)
KUBE 93.3 (Rhythmic Contemporary Hits)
KWJZ 98.9 (smooth jazz)
KZOK-FM 102.5 (classic rock)

There are also two National Public Radio member stations in the Seattle market:

KPLU-FM 88.5, licensed by Tacoma's Pacific Lutheran University but run out of downtown Seattle
KUOW-FM 94.9, licensed by the University of Washington and run by Puget Sound Public Radio.

Other public radio stations in the area include:

KEXP-FM 90.3; licensed by the University of Washington and supported by the Experience Music Project, it plays a variety of contemporary alternative and genre music
KBCS-FM 91.3 (affiliated with Bellevue Community College, Bellevue, Washington)
KNHC-FM 89.5, owned by the Seattle Public Schools and operated by students at Nathan Hale High School.

Many Seattle radio stations are also available through internet radio, with KEXP being the first radio station to offer real-time playlists, broadcast uncompressed CD quality music over the internet 24 hours a day, and offer internet archives of its shows (Podcasts).^[6]

[edit] Internet

On the Internet Seattle is covered by Seattle Indymedia,^[7]—a co-op started in 1999 which has since spread to many cities around the world—and by numerous blogs including Seattlest,^[8] Seattle Metroblogging,^[9] SeattleArt.org,^[10] and The Stranger's blog Slog.^[11] The most recent entry into the mix is Crosscut^[12] started by Seattle Weekly founder David Brewster.

To better understand Seattle's romance with the Internet, look at the city's persistent media traditions, ranging from small presses to low power FM radio broadcasting. Seattle's independent volunteer-run KRAB-FM radio, a high powered station that operated on 107.7 MHz in the regular broadcast band, influenced a generation of listeners and citizens during the 1960s and 1970s. Later, a number of very low power, microradio FM stations broadcast on the few remaining FM frequencies not allocated to high power stations, before Internet radio became practical. Currently, FCC deliberations and rulings about Internet radio are followed not only by Internet entrepreneurs, but by those Seattleites who produced and listened to local radio in those media, as well as those who produce and read countless local print publications.