Seattle P-I publisher Roger Oglesby has asked staffers to come up with ideas to transform the daily newspaper into an online-only operation, following the lead of publications such as The Christian Science Monitor. Oglesby's memo, which was sent today, quotes Hearst Corp. executives asking staffers to "think outside the box," "be inventive," "be bold" and "be lean."

The P-I was put up for sale last week in a surprise move by Hearst, which at the time said it may consider going fully online or closing the paper if it can't find a buyer in 60 days. Read on for the full text of Oglesby's memo:

We've recently spent time with the leaders of Hearst Newspapers' Digital Media group, focusing on creating a viable online-only model for this market. We're exploring all the options, and would appreciate your help and input.

Some of you shared with Lincoln Millstein during his visit last week your thoughts about what an online-only seattlepi.com should look like. Lincoln asked that we capture your ideas and forward them so they could be considered during this business planning phase.

If you have thoughts about how an online-only seattlepi.com should operate, please email them to Michelle Nicolosi. She'll pull them together and forward them to Lincoln and Ken Riddick.

Here's their explanation of what they're looking for:

"Please don't confine yourself to staffing proposals. We're interested in your thoughts on how to maintain and grow our online audience so we might have the competitive advantage in the market. If you have ideas to help us drive the revenue side of the business we're interested in that, too.

"Send along ideas for partnerships, part time models, revenue sharing, freelancing and any other creative types of structures that might help us reach our goal of creating a profitable business model in the market.

"Think outside of the box. Break the molds. Be inventive. Be bold. Think lean. Invent what journalism can and should be at a lean online-only operation."

Here's your chance to weigh in. Thanks in advance for your creative thinking to help flesh out what a vibrant and profitable seattlepi.com might be.

We weighed in with some of our suggestions earlier this week, and put together a short list of Seattle techies who could help salvage Seattle's oldest daily paper as an online-only operation. Crosscut also has offered some insights on what Hearst may be doing.

If Hearst opts for an online model, one potential challenge is that the bulk of employees are represented by Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which has a goal of preserving as many newspaper jobs as possible. It could be especially problematic for a P-I union member to think "lean" knowing that his or her suggestions could undercut the person at the next desk.

The union also is considering ways to save the P-I, with a meeting to be held Thursday.