A new Seattle-based online-only newspaper launched today. Soon, it may have some new competition.

Ever since the legal battle between Seattle’s two daily newspapers began four years ago, there has been constant conversation inside the industry trying to predict how this will all play out. Some, including me, have wondered if it will produce the country’s first online-only, mainstream daily newspaper.

If the Seattle Times wins, the Post-Intelligencer would be left without a printing press, trucks and many other functions that are "mission critical" to running a printed newspaper. But they’d have journalists and an already popular web site to continue publication of the news.

The economics, according to this story from the Sunday Times, are not quite there yet.

But financial data indicate the P-I's Web site doesn't generate nearly enough revenue yet to support the paper's current news operation. Groves and other experts say Hearst — or a new P-I owner — probably would face a choice between losing money for at least the first few years or putting out an online product with a significantly smaller staff.

Still, as a test case for publishing in an online-only environment, there will be lots of people like me hoping Hearst rolls the dice. Our newsroom goals for 2007 have reporters, photographers and editors attempting to think with a “web-first” mentality. But if the P-I went online-only, we’d all see whether a print operation could truly survive (and thrive?) in a new medium.