This will be embarrassing if the story is true:

The future of one of Seattle’s two daily newspapers was called into question Thursday by a TV station report, although top leaders at both papers appeared surprised by it.
KING/5 reported at 5 p.m. that “a source close to the deal” said The Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle [Post-Intelligencer], 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, “We’re told 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 knew 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 staff members: “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.”
McCumber said that he had spoken to P-I Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby by phone a few minutes before and that Oglesby “said almost exactly what I’m telling you.”
Oglesby did not return calls seeking comment.
KING/5 reporter Linda Byron said in an interview that she would not reveal her source but that she is “confident” about the information. She repeated that the source is “close to the deal.”

I wouldn’t want to be the business editor of the P-I right now. I wonder if the buyers are going to ask for an extra discount now.