Dave Horsey responds

Regina, I still love you, even though your comments about me are preposterous.

In no way was I deriding my former colleagues in my remarks about
the new media reality. We are, indeed, in the midst of a revolution in
the world of journalism. There are some terrible results — most
particularly, the thousands of jobs lost by incredibly talented
journalists such as my friends and colleagues at the P-I. But there are
also new opportunities for us all as we try to reinvent the way news is
delivered to the public. My remarks were addressed to the advertisers
who are vital to making new models work. If there’s no money stream,
there won’t be any journalists being paid and we won’t be able to
rebuild American journalism. My greatest hope is that the business
model of seattlepi.com will be so successful that many of the reporters
who lost their jobs will be hired back and the great tradition of the
P-I will be reborn.

As far as my cartoon about blogging, Regina, you were way, way off
the mark. The cartoon was inspired by a New York Times article that
said 95 percent of the blogs that have been started are now dormant and
all but a fraction of those that remain active have an audience of one.
The point of the cartoon was that, just because a person has an
opinion, there is no guarantee that anyone else wants to hear it. Most
people still want to read the words of those who have credentials. I,
for instance, would prefer to read Regina Hackett’s opinion about art
rather than the comments of someone who is merely popping off an
ill-informed screed.

Regina, I’m sorry you decided to pop off about me without doing a
little research, but, as I said, I still love you and all my P-I
colleagues.
I know I’m one of the few lucky ones in this current sad situation, but
that doesn’t mean I don’t miss the old P-I and the people who made it
great.

David Horsey