Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata convened a panel at his Culture, Civil Rights, Health and Personnel Committee today to discuss the future of Seattle's two daily newspapers.

The Seattle P-I may close if a buyer is not found, and the Seattle Times has said it is also losing money and in financial trouble.

Three councilmembers on the committee -- including former Times and P-I writer Jean Godden -- heard a variety of views from journalism professors, bloggers and online journalists and representatives from the Committee for a Two Newspaper Town.

Several panelists urged the city to take a leadership role in finding a buyer for the Seattle P-I, which owner Hearst Corp. has put up for sale. Licata said he wasn't planning to take the lead, although he was open to playing "a major role" if constituents wanted to try to do something to save the daily paper.

Some panelists questioned whether it was in Seattle's best interest to save the newspapers. They said saving professional journalism and the role it plays in a community is more important.

University of Washington professor Doug Underwood said newspapers were able to survive for a long time because they owned the expensive equipment needed to print papers. Now that the Internet has made it possible for anyone to publish, he questioned whether newspapers would be able to make it.

"Large media organizations have a hard time transferring things. You know, horse and buggy operators did not become car manufacturers," he said.

Councilmembers wondered how consistently blogs and online media would uphold ethics and standards that newspapers have, especially without resources to pay professional journalists who can make a living reporting the news. And they said newspapers often set the agenda for radio and television stations with smaller staffs.

But David Brewster, who runs the nonprofit Crosscut online newspaper, urged councilmembers to resist imposing a solution.

"Relax a bit," he said. "Allow these developments, web developments and other things, to flourish, rather than erect big oak trees that will overshadow them."