And while I appreciate that the PI affiliation may drive bigger traffic numbers and generate more value for your advertisers, I personally see this as a beginning of the end.

I think the PI is a garbage paper, and I have no interest in reading their content on Xconomy. Maybe I am jumping the gun on this, but where is the value for the long time Xconomy reader? If I want PI content, I know where to look for it. There is no value added here, as I see it. Xconomy is interesting because it is unique and fairly small readership with a handful of contributors that don’t feel a need to speak in layman’s terms. Any drive to increase readership requires that some dumbing down will occur. Congrats on a great product, but I think this is a bad idea.

Xconomy provides some very focussed areas of local news with a sense of community not usually seen in other media. In my opinion, the PI has always been a more interesting paper than the Times. So I am happy for both parties.