The Washington Newspaper, April 2019

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THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER April 2019

UW interns reflect on their experiences Page 6

Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association

Better Newspaper Contest website open for entries

As of Monday, April 1, the website for this year’s Better Newspaper Contest is open for entries. The website is betterbnc.com. To find our contest, go to the drop down menu and select 2019 WNPA (WA) BNC. Before you go there, however, you should go to wnpa. com and click on the contest tile on the home page to get the new rules and regulations.

The big change this year is all entries must be submitted as full page PDFs. The one exception is Web Divsion entries, where links are accept-

able. So, that means don’t link to online pages where your entry exists.

Also, photos, ads and news stories must be submitted on the full-page PDF of the page where they were published. We’re making these changes to go easy on our judges, who have had problems in the past getting to some online links.

Most other things should look pretty familiar. Remember, entering the General Excellence division is free, so don’t miss the opportunity to enter. Good luck to everyone!

Pacific Coast photographer Mulinix dies after stroke

Damian Mulinix, a frequent winwho was WNPA’s ner of photogPhotographer of the raphy prizes in Year in 2005, 2007, WNPA’s annual & 2012, suffered contest, as well a massive stroke as other photo while at home with contests. Over his family. He was the years, he flown by helicopter shot photos for Mulinix from Ilwaco to PortWashington land for treatment, but he did Coast Magazine, The Daily not survive. He died March World, The Daily Astorian, 30 surrounded by family and The Chinook Observer and a friends. large number of commercial A celebration of life is clients. being planned for May 11, in A go-fund-me page has Long Beach, Wash. Details been established to help with will follow. expenses. To find it, go to Mulinix was an extremely Gofundme.com and search gifted photographer and was on Damian’s name.

Gov. Jay Inslee addresses the gathering following dinner at the Governor’s Mansion on the Capitol Campus. Inslee is the first Washington Governor to announce a bid for his party’s presidential nomination.

Packed agenda draws big crowd to Legislative Day Gov. Jay Inslee talked about his run for the presidency and answered questions from attendees following the annual Legislative Day dinner at the Governor’s Mansion March 14.

The annual visit to Olympia is sponsored by Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

Inslee joked that his wedding picture in the Post-Intelligencer

misidentified his wife, but he said that he long ago left bad feelings about that behind.

“I’m over it now,” he told the crowd.

He said he would continue to accept support from political action committees that are supporting his candidacy and he defended making global climate change a central tenet of his campaign.

In the end, he said, the

climate change issue is linked to virtually every other issue Americans face, and nothing could be more important to the survival of future generations.

Inslee also praised the news media, calling its work essential to democracy and critical to our future.

And, he added, that he has been treated really well by the media so far on the campaign See OLYMPIA, Page 4

WNPA Foundation awards internships The WNPA Foundation last month awarded $2,000 stipends to three university students to help fund a summer working at a WNPA newspaper.

Accepting the internships were Brennan LaBrie, of Pacific Lutheran University, Kate Agbayani, from Washington State University and Carmen Jaramillo, also of Washington State University.

The internships are funded by money raised at WNPA’s annual convention and through interest on an endowment account established by former WNPA newspaper publishers and others. Internships are named for: • Bruce and Betty Helberg. Bruce worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and with Betty went into partnership in the Kent News Journal and the Renton Chronicle. Bruce was the editor in Renton until 1954. He then went into partnership with Clarence Lafromboise on a weekly,

the Bellevue American.

They sold the American in 1982, when it was publishing five days a week.

• Richard W. Gay. Gay succeeded his parents, Robert and Olga Gay, as publisher of the Prosser Record-Bulletin in 1949.

He served as WNPA President in 1959. The couple purchased the Grandview Herald in 1970 and published both newspapers until 1986.

• Wilson/Gay Internship Scholarship.

This scholarship was established in 2012 by Merilynn Wilson and is named for two of WNPA’s deceased titans, Bruce A. Wilson of Omak and Henry Gay of Shelton. Wilson with his wife Merilynn published the Ritzville Journal-Times (1947-1958) and the Omak Chronicle (19581982). Gay published the Buckley News Banner (1954-1964) and then the Shelton-Mason County Journal (1966-1999).

Officers: Michael Wagar, President; Patrick Grubb, First Vice President; Eric LaFontaine, 2nd Vice President; Sandy Stokes, Past President.

Trustees: Colette Weeks, Caralyn Bess, Roger Harnack, Scott Hunter, Steve Powell, Teresa Myers and Michelle Nedved.

THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER is the offical publication of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. It is published monthly

by WNPA, PO Box 389, Port Townsend, WA 98368.

Staff Fred Obee: Executive Director: 360-344-2938 Email: fredobee@wnpa.com Janay Collins, Member Services Director: 360-344-2938. Email: ads@wnpa.com 2 The Washington Newspaper April 2019

FROM THE PRESIDENT

It’s crunch time; keep good records and drill down on your expenses

By Michael Wagar We’re in the fight of our lives. Newspaper owners, presidents, publishers, editors, those who sell and those who create, this is our crunch time.

Do it right and the chances of survival offer a decent bet.

Wagar But if you run your operations incorrectly, your newspaper operations will be in deep jeopardy. We are suffering from dropping ad sales, the loss of most of our classifieds and lower circulation numbers. People don’t read the news like they used to.

Papers are cutting back on frequency of publication and lowering the number of pages, as a best case scenario.

Some papers are closing, going bankrupt, at worst. The number of journalists has dropped by at least 20 percent in the past 15 years. Trying times.

Our hopes for digital revenue, for the majority of papers that are members of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, has not been the golden egg we thought was going to be the answer.

I have been president of Lafromboise Communications, Inc., for exactly one year. Before that I was a would-be

novelist, reporter, editor, public relations person for a major international power company, editor/publisher and now president. We have three papers, a sign business, and sheet fed and web operations.

These past 12 months have been eye-opening, the typical “I wish I knew then what I know now.”

I’m in awe of the old business pros who have been slogging against the headwinds of our industry for the past decade or two. Their depth of expertise and ability to identify what needs to be done is amazing.

But sometimes a new perspective can offer valuable direction. I offer the following that many of you are already pursuing, but if you are not, please consider.

First on the list is check all your bids. Many of you do everything in house, but some print offsite. Aging printing presses, for example, can be twice the cost of the newer, bigger operations.

Make it a point to put out bids for all you outsource on a regular basis. At the least make it annual.

And not just printing, but everything you do from business management all the way down to janitorial services. Likewise, go look over every budget item as closely as possible. I remember years ago switching our weather syndicate with savings in the thousands.

Consolidate operations wherever possible.

At Lafromboise, we have

one person in charge of sales for all divisions, one person in charge of overall editorial coverage, one person in charge of design, and one person in charge of front desk duties which includes obits, legals and classifieds. We set up teams led by these leaders from throughout the company.

Launch new products.

If they work, fine. If not, dump them and then move on to the next project. There are plenty of ideas out there, from new sections to new tech.

For print, we’ve added a new weekender entertainment section that replaces one of our shoppers. We started a monthly real estate section and are about to launch an automotive section.

One easy tech project was to capture national news advertising for our websites through our partnership with TownNews. It isn’t much, but one of my mentors said nickels create quarters, and quarters lead to dollars. The TownNews project was launched a few months ago. Once launched, it works on its own. So far we have seen revenue continue to rise and although annually it might only be $25,000, that is money I can put to good use.

The biggest lesson I have learned, and it has come with its bruises, is the importance of knowing your budget. Make sure your past revenue and costs are accurate, and then use trends to predict future profits and losses.

Without that information, you can’t make prudent business decisions.

Crunch the numbers, then crunch them some more.

Don’t stop until you know your numbers inside and out.

Once you know the numbers, take an overall look at where you are spending those hardearned bucks.

When making choices, look to cut as many administrative costs as possible. Focus your dollars on your sales teams and the newsroom. Those are the two departments that will make or break your overall operations.

They are the engines of newspapers.

Most of us are mom and pop operations. But you have to think like the big newspaper chains.

They make the tough decisions, the hard cuts.

It is time for all of us to emulate that approach.

Our industry is forcing us to do so anyway, so why not get in front of needed changes? Your very survival is dependent on it.

For those out there that want to help this puppy publisher, send me your punch list of what you believe is critical for our existence to mwagar@ chronline.com. I’ll share them in an upcoming column.

Until then, continue to do what I call “God’s work.”

Michael Wagar is the president of Lafromboise Communications and this year’s WNPA president.

Indiana beats back attempt to pull legals from newspapers A bill that would have eliminated the newspaper publication requirement for foreclosure notices in Indiana was narrowly defeated last week in a vote taken immediately following a committee hearing.

House Bill 1212 had passed the Indiana House 62-34 in January and was in danger of moving another step closer to passage when it was defeated by a vote of 5-4 in the Senate Local Government Committee.

Although it was a big victory for the Hoosier State Press Association (HSPA), the war over foreclosure notices in Indiana isn’t over yet, according to HSPA Executive Director Steve Key. “The language in HB1212 remains eligible for amend-

ment into another bill since it was passed by the House earlier this session,” Key told his members.

A bill that would eliminate foreclosure notices in newspapers is also scheduled to be heard in Missouri. Senate Bill 250, which would most likely move the notices to websites operated by law firms that serve as mortgage trustees in the state, will be heard in the Senate General Laws Committee. Earlier this year, that same committee voted 5-2 against a different bill that would have moved all official notice

to government websites.

Newspapers in Missouri are hopeful that earlier vote bodes well for SB250.

Expanding notices in Michigan?

While publishers in Indiana and Missouri are battling to maintain their foreclosure notices, newspapers a little further to the north in Michigan are supporting legislation that would expand the size of the foreclosure notices.

A bill there would require mortgagors to include additional information in the foreclosure notices they publish to help delinquent borrowers understand their rights and add transparency around the auction process.

This unusual effort to

increase the size of notices in Michigan is necessary, according to the Michigan Press Association (MPA), due to a series of lawsuits over foreclosure notices that were filed a few years ago against foreclosure lawyers and the Detroit Legal News.

Debt collection attorney Brian Parker first sued foreclosure attorneys in the state, claiming they violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by publishing notices without doing enough work to prove that homeowners were in arrears on their mortgages.

A few months later he also sued the Legal News, alleging the paper violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by publishing foreclo-

sure notices pertaining to his clients.

The case against the Legal News was dismissed for lack of cause. The suits against the foreclosure lawyers may have suffered a mortal blow on March 20 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated case that a law firm engaged in non-judicial foreclosure proceedings is not a “debt collector” subject to the FDCPA. After the suits were initially filed, foreclosure lawyers in Michigan stripped everything out of their clients’ notices that was not specifically required by statute. Language that had previously been voluntarily included in the notices — like contact information for

homeowners and lawyers, and the street address of the property — was purposely excluded, and the average size of a foreclosure notice in the state shrunk from six folios to four, according to Detroit Legal News Co. Chairman and CEO Brad Thompson.

“We spoke with stakeholders in the state and found a lot of confusion around the new notices. We needed language to protect all of the parties nvolved,” said Thompson.

This report was compiled by the Public Notice Resource Center, whose mission is to promote the importance of providing public notices in newspapers.

WITH OVER 60 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, WE KNOW JOURNALISM. From public records to protecting journalists, from defamation claims to business needs, large and small Washington publishers turn to us.

DWT.COM Anchorage | Bellevue | Los Angeles | New York | Portland San Francisco | Seattle | Shanghai | Washington, D.C.

The Washington Newspaper April 2019 3

OLYMPIA: Officials questioned; auditor unveils new website Continued from Page 1

trail.

In introducing the Governor, Allied Daily Newspaper Executive Director Rowland Thompson noted the historic nature of Inslee’s quest for the presidency.

No other Washington governor has ever campaigned for the presidency. The last Washington resident to run was Sen. Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, who sought the Democratic nomination in 1972 and 1976.

This year’s crowd strained the confines of the governor’s mansion and the Senate Rules Room in the Lieutenant Governor’s office, where a parade of elected and appointed leaders addressed represenatatives from newspapers acrosss the state.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he is confident stricter gun laws imposed by Inititative 1639 are constitutional.

Earlier this year, at least

13 county sheriffs have said they won’t enforce the law.

I-1639 is a state law, Ferguson said, and lawenforcement agencies have a duty to “abide by the will of the people we serve and implement and enforce the laws they adopt.”

Law enforcement officials exercise discretionary judgments every day, Ferguson acknowledged, but some elements of the law, like background checks, are not optional.

State Auditor Pat McCarthy unveiled a new website that appears to be a powerful tool for looking at the health of taxing districts in your community, and for comparing similar entities around the state.

How is your city doing?

How does it compare with others of similar size? Did the state find problems with record keeping or financial management?

To find the answers to these questions, check out the auditor’s website at sao.wa.gov.

After getting clearance from the State Patrol, attendees walk up to the Governor’s Mansion.

4 The Washington Newspaper April 2019

Legislative Day 2019

Attorney General Bob Ferguson addresses the crowd in the Senate Rules Room in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.

Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst welcomes everyone to the court.

At the Supreme Court, the crowd listens to Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst. From left are: Sound Publishing President Josh O’Connor, Seattle Times Editor Don Shelton, and Don Nelson, WNPA Foundation President and publisher of the Methow Valley News.

Attendees arrive in the foyer of the Governor’s Mansion for a reception before dinner.

Legislative Day 2019

Sitting down to dinner are, from left, Karen Wagar, WNPA President Michael Wagar and WNPA Member Services Director Janay Collins.

Andy Hobbs, editorial director for Sound Publishing, mingles during the reception before dinner. In the background, Methow Valley News Publisher Don Nelson catches up with La Conner Weekly News Publisher Ken Stern.

The library in the Governor’s Mansion is a cozy space. Not surprisingly, there are a number of books on presidents and the presidency.

Statesman-Examiner Publisher Roger Harnack, at right, and TeAire Baier visit with others at the reception before dinner.

The Washington Newspaper April 2019 5

UW interns wrap up work at Olympia News Bureau Emma Epperly from Washington State University continues to report from WNPA’s Olympia News Bureau under the direction of Bureau Chief Sandy Stokes, but three University of Washington interns have completed their internships. The departing interns reflected on their time roaming through Olympia’s marble halls and talked about what they learned. Here are their reflections: MADDIE COATS I came into this internship knowing that I wanted to be a reporter for a local newspaper after college.

This opporCoats tunity changed my perspective on the Legislature and has gone so far as convincing me to pursue government reporting as a potential job path after graduation. I always believed that politics would be too much to handle, yet I thoroughly enjoyed covering various bills and updating briefs as they went to the House and Senate floor hearings.

From a broad perspective, my greatest achievement was filing 37 stories over the duration of the quarter. I definitely honed in on my ability to hit hard deadlines quickly and with ease. My favorite story was one of my latest about the lawsuits from the gun control initiative.

It was very difficult to analyze and understand the two lawsuits and even harder to put them into my own words. Sandy

really pushed me to go out with a bang and work outside my comfort zone.

As a result, I learned how to handle angry lawyers and navigate confusing language. My greatest disappointment also had to do with the article about gun control lawsuits. I called close to ten possible sources, however only two people even gave me the time of day. This was my first experience in journalism where I felt that the voice on the other side of the phone talked as though I was inferior and incompetent. It taught me to grow a thicker skin and act with more confidence.

I feel strongly that WNPA valued my input and ideas. Often times, Sandy would ask us to edit each other’s articles as another perspective.

Our editors trusted us to choose stories on our own and have freedom to cover all aspects of the capital.

I felt valued as a reporter, not just an intern.

SEAN HARDING The reporting and writing skills I gained while at this internship will transfer to the rest of the courses in my degree plan in one way or another.

Harding Just like mastering a musical instrument takes time, effort and patience: writing and reporting are skills that develop over time and journalism mastery takes a similar level of dedication.

The deeper understanding that I have of the legislative process, as well as the

6 The Washington Newspaper April 2019

was a real job, carrying more weight than a normal internship. It will give me a leg up on the competition on any application that requires reporting experience.

experience I had in reporting and research, will carry me through my next journalism and geography courses with an even more solid foundation than had I not chosen to join the internship.

Sandy gave us plenty of rope to develop our own story ideas. She loved my story about the Legislature praying for Congress to stop Trump from launching a nuke, and it was her idea to include the mushroom cloud. She was extremely supportive of including a map on my profile on the 19th and she shared the map with one of her rural editors so I could make it even better.

My greatest achievement was making it

through the semester and I’m particularly proud of the map of the 19th Legislative District I created.

It was a lot more difficult, software-wise than I had anticipated but I think it added a lot of value to the story and I think people liked it. The Aberdeen Daily World had the map published on their front page this past weekend as part of their lead story.

Without a doubt, realworld reporting experience is excellent to have on a resume. Especially legislative reporting. It’s so fast-paced and requires such a fast turnaround that it becomes almost effortless. Working for the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association

EMMA SCHER This internship has given me a great sense of what being a full-time reporter is like.

I’ve learned how to build a network Scher of contacts, turn over multiple pieces a week (and oftentimes multiple pieces a day), and have a much better understanding of the political system than I ever did before.

These are experiences that I can transfer to any journalism job that I get in the future.

This internship helped me better understand the important role journalism plays in a successful democracy. At WNPA there were three of us covering bills all day, every day and it still wasn’t enough to cover everything. I have a more solid understanding of the workload of a professional journalist and why it’s important in a political sphere.

My news organization largely valued my input and ideas. They wanted us covering what was important, but my editor specifically encouraged us to focus on what was interesting to us. She always encouraged us to listen to our guts because what we found interesting, others likely would too.

Two particularly proud

moments stand out to me from this quarter. The first was towards the beginning of the quarter, when former California Governor Jerry Brown visited Olympia for meetings with Governor Inslee and some state lawmakers about climate policy. Brown and Inslee had a press conference in the governor’s office (the communications director accidentally sent out a media email referring to it as a “press scrum” which is honestly the best way to describe it). The two stood in a corner while cameras and notepads swarmed— everyone was responsible for grabbing a photo. I don’t have a ton of photojournalism experience and had a hard time getting past the Seattle Times, KIRO, and AP elbows to grab a great photo. When everyone started dispersing, I was the only reporter that followed up to grab a photo of Inslee and Brown walking out of the capitol building. I was really happy with what I got because I knew that my byline would be the only one running with that photo.

The second moment is a piece I did on a proposal to split Washington into two separate states. This was one of the few pitches that Sandy sent out to us (we were pretty good at finding our own stories and covering the important stuff). I jumped on the pitch and took some extra time to explore a different angle than the basic public hearing coverage we had largely been doing up until that point.

I conducted eight interviews, and did a ton of research, and ended up with a piece that I’m really proud of. It ended up getting run by NBC online which was really exciting.

Facing a legal emergency? Call WNPA first

By Fred Obee At WNPA, we are devoted to helping our member newspapers protect themselves from lawsuits, libel actions and other legal difficulties. The hotline, as we’ve always referred to it, was established Obee many years ago to provide quick legal advice from an attorney when members faced a legal emergency.

For years, we kept an attorney on retainer and members were allowed to call the attorney directly, and during this time the use of the hotline expanded. People were calling about lots of non-emergency issues, from access to meet-

ings and documents, to questions about becoming a legal newspaper, copyright infringement, what the rules applied to housing ads in classified columns, human resource questions and plenty of other issues.

Ultimately, the WNPA Board of Directors decided that keeping an attorney on retainer to answer these non-emergency legal questions was veering pretty far from the original purpose of our legal hotline, and because legal advice from practicing attorneys often costs between $300 and $400 an hour, we decided to rein in use of the hotline for non-emergency questions.

Our policy today is this: If someone serves you with a subpoena, presents you with an order to turn over files, files a lawsuit against

you, issues you a summons to testify, or takes some other legal action against you that requires an immediate response, you should call WNPA to get clearance to talk to our hotline attorney.

If you face a legal emergency, WNPA will then connect you with Michele Earl Hubbard, an attorney well known to WNPA members, and she will tell you what your legal options are and what steps you need to take next.

Following that one hour initial conference, WNPA members can retain the hotline attorney, or any other attorney, for any follow up that is necessary, such as writing a letter to the complaining party or their attorney or defending a lawsuit.

In the end, this doesn’t really cut back on services to our members.

The reality is that most of the questions our members face can be answered by the WNPA staff. When we face a particularly vexing issue about open records or meetings, we can collaborate with the attorneys at the Washington Coalition for Open Government and get a quick response.

We know time is of the essence when lawyers are breathing down your neck, so I am available

TURN ON THE LIGHT…

Linares new advertising director for Eastside Sound newspapers Pili Linares was recently named the advertising director for seven of Sound Publishing’s Eastside and North King County newspapers: Bellevue Linares Reporter, Kirkland Reporter, Mercer Island Reporter, Redmond Reporter, Issaquah Reporter and Snoqualmie Valley Record. She will also oversee seattleweekly.com. Carrie Radcliff will oversee ad operations for the BothellKenmore Reporter.

Linares has returned to Washington after leading

business and advertising operations at multiple newspapers in Texas. She previously held management roles in marketing and advertising for The Daily Herald in Everett as well as the Hearst Corporation.

Linares graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in advertising and also completed an international business program at the University of Salamanca, Spain.

“I am excited to work in tandem with our team of journalists to deliver newspapers that matter in the community,” said Linares, who began her new role in January.

Another change is on the horizon. Starting April 1,

7 The Washington Newspaper April 2019

these seven Eastside publications will relocate their operations from Bellevue to a new office at 11630 Slater Ave. NE in Kirkland.

This new location will bring all of Sound Publishing’s Eastside operations under one roof.

Regional editor Corey Morris and senior editor Samantha Pak will continue to guide coverage of breaking news, people and places throughout the Eastside. The local news team includes reporters Aaron Kunkler, Ashley Hiruko, Madison Miller, Evan Pappas, Katie Metzger, Kailan Manandic, Stephanie Quiroz, Shaun Scott and sports editor Andy Nystrom.

at almost any time of the day, any day of the week.

Our office phone is 360344-2938. If we are out of the office, you can call my cell phone at 360301-6453.

We also have recently instituted an email that goes out to publishers across the state, so sometimes non-emergency questions can be answered by your peers in the industry. To use that service, just email wnpap-

ublisher@listeron.com.

We are happy to consult with our members on any issue they face, but legal advice about your business, taxes, employee issues, copyrights and other non-emergency questions aren’t for the legal hotline. They are more appropriately directed to your personal attorney for resolution.

Fred Obee is the WNPA Executive Director.

…OUR TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT BELONGS TO YOU.

DON’T LOSE IT!

Keys to government Accountability Responsibility Accessibility

Washington’s Open Public Meetings and Public Records Acts Preserve your rights to government actions that affect you.

Learn about Open Government – When Records Requests are Denied…

http://washingtoncog.org/dealing-denial

In partnership with Contact us with your open-government questions

360-344-2938 • wnpa.com

WNPA JOB BOARD EDITOR Sound Publishing has an immediate opening for an Editor to lead the Renton Reporter and CovingtonMaple Valley Reporter.

This is not an entry-level position. Requires a hands-on leader with a minimum of three years of newspaper experience including writing, editing, pagination, photography and monitoring social media.

The successful candidate: • Has a demonstrated interest in local political and cultural affairs.

• Possesses excellent writing and verbal skills, and can provide representative clips from one or more professional publications.

• Has experience editing reporters’ copy and submitted materials for content and style.

• Is proficient in designing and building pages with Adobe InDesign.

• Is experienced managing an opinion page, writing cogent and stylistically interesting commentaries, and editing a reader letters column.

• Has experience with social media and newspaper website content management and understands the value of the web to report news on a daily basis.

• Has proven interpersonal skills representing a newspaper or other organization at civic functions and public venues.

• Understands how to lead, motivate, and mentor a small news staff.

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including health insurance, paid time off (vacation, sick, and holidays), and 401K (currently with an employer match.)

This position is based

in our regional office in Federal Way. If you are interested in joining our team, email us your cover letter and resume to careers@soundpublishing.com. Please be sure to note ATTN: EDITEAST in the subject line.

REPORTER Do you want to live in one of the most beautiful places in the country?

Do you want to be part of a community that cares about the land and each other? And do you want to do the kind of journalism that serves the community and uses modern tools without abandoning long-held principles?

Consider the Methow Valley News, a 116-yearold, locally owned weekly near Washington’s North Cascades mountains. We are seeking a full-time news and feature reporter to help provide coverage of a rural but sophisticated community that values good journalism.

News reporting and writing experience required, as are the ability to meet firm deadlines; the willingness to work nights and weekends as necessary; and photography skills. Design experience is a bonus. This could be an entry-level position for the right person, but we are looking for someone who already knows how to do journalism and is eager to join an experienced, capable staff. Salary is competitive and will depend on experience; health care coverage is available. The position is open in April; relocation to the Methow Valley is required.

Submit a cover letter,

8 The Washington Newspaper April 2019

resume and representaCoast. tive work samples to ediThe newspaper group tor@methowvalleynews. includes The Daily World com. No calls. based in Aberdeen, Wash., and three weekly papers.

REPORTER One of the weeklies is The Grays Harbor based in the town of Newspaper Group is look- Ocean Shores. That will ing for a reporter who is be the heart of the coveralso good with a camera age area, but the job will to cover a geographic beat sometimes entail reporting for all the publications. along the Washington

We’re looking for someone who writes clear stories about complex matters, and who will find and tell stories about real people and life on the coast. We value enterprise and reporters who dig.

Photography and strong social media credentials are a must. Send writing and photography samples

to careers@soundpublishing.com, and make sure to include in the subject line: Attention - GR Aberdeen.

We offer a competitive hourly wage and benefits package including health insurance, 401K (currently with an employer match), paid vacation (after 6 months), and paid holidays.