From the rival daily, the Seattle Times ...

The future of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer appeared uncertain tonight after a local television station reported the newspaper is setting the stage for closure -- but then the managing editor of the paper said he knew of no such plans.

KING-TV reported at 5 p.m. that the P-I will be put up for sale. The information was attributed to an unnamed "source close to the deal." The television station said that neither Hearst Corporation, which owns the P-I, nor the paper's publisher was available to immediately confirm the report. However, the source said the news could be officially announced as early as tomorrow.

The P-I then reported that the paper's managing editor said he knows of no plans to sell the paper. At about 5:15 p.m., soon after the KING-TV report was aired, managing editor David McCumber told the newsroom's staffers, "If this is going on -- and I don't know that it is -- it's going on at a level that's far above me, and nobody has seen fit to clue me in. I think it's a bunch of rumor. You look at the state of this business -- it wouldn't surprise me if something was going on, but I have no knowledge of what that something is."

From the PI's own website (musta been fun to write) ...

The future of one of Seattle's two daily newspapers was called into question Thursday by a TV station report, though top leaders at both papers appeared surprised by the report.

KING 5 reported at about 5 p.m. that "a source close to the deal" said Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle P-I, would announce as soon as Friday that it's putting the P-I up for sale.

The report, which also appeared on the station's Web site, added that "Hearst does not expect another buyer to step forward and that Seattle will likely become a one-newspaper town within the next few months."

The P-I's managing editor said he knows of no plans to sell the paper. At about 5:15 p.m., soon after the report was aired, managing editor David McCumber told the newsroom's staffers, "If this is going on -- and I don't know that it is -- it's going on at a level that's far above me, and nobody has seen fit to clue me in. I think it's a bunch of rumor. You look at the state of this business -- it wouldn't surprise me if something was going on, but I have no knowledge of what that something is."