Willamette Week

Willamette Week (WW) is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture.

Willamette Week
Cover
TypeAlternative weekly
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)City of Roses Newspapers
PublisherMark Zusman[1] (2015–)
EditorMark Zusman
FoundedNovember 1974
Headquarters2220 NW Quimby St.
Portland, OR 97210
US
Circulation50,000-55,000 (self-reported circulation in 2019)
Websitewweek.com

Willamette Week is the only weekly newspaper to have had one of its reporters, Nigel Jaquiss, win a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.[2] It is also the first newspaper to have won a Pulitzer for a story first published online.

History

Early history

Willamette Week was founded in 1974 by Ronald A. Buel, who served as its first publisher.[3] It was later owned by the Eugene Register-Guard, which sold it in the fall of 1983 to Richard H. Meeker and Mark Zusman,[4] who took the positions of publisher and editor, respectively. Meeker had been one of the paper's first reporters, starting in 1974, and Zusman had joined the paper as a business writer in 1982.[3] Meeker and Zusman formed City of Roses Newspaper Company to publish WW and a sister publication, Fresh Weekly, a free guide to local arts and entertainment. WW had a paid circulation at that time, with about 12,000 subscribers.[4]

Post-merger

A major change was made in January 1984, when Fresh Weekly was merged into WW, the paper's print run was increased to 50,000 and paid circulation was discontinued, with WW thereafter being distributed free.[4] WW increased circulation to 90,000 copies by 2007.[5] Circulation has declined to 50,000 by March 2020.[6]

In June 2015, Richard Meeker stepped down as Willamette Week's publisher, after more than 31 years in the position.[7][8] Editor Mark Zusman succeeded him as publisher, while also retaining the editorship.[8][9] Meeker planned to continue working for the City of Roses Newspaper Company, WW's owner.[7][9]

Features

Prior to his death in 2010, cartoonist John Callahan's long-running comic "Callahan" appeared weekly in the paper, for almost 30 years.[10]

Finances

Since 1984, the paper has been free; as of 2007 over 80% of its revenue was generated through display advertising.[5] For 2007, its revenue was expected to be about $6.25 million, a four or five percent increase over 2006, a growth that occurred in spite of a significant decline in classified advertising that the publisher attributed to competition from Craigslist.[5] Its pre-tax profit in 2006 was around 5%, a third to a half of what large mass-media companies require.[5]

Notable stories

Notable stories first reported by WW include:

  • In 2009, reporting that then-City Commissioner Sam Adams engaged in a sexual relationship with a legislative intern, Beau Breedlove. Rumors of a relationship between the two men had circulated during Adams' campaign for mayor, but Adams denied any sexual relationship. Only after Willamette Week contacted Adams for comment on an upcoming story did he admit publicly that there had been a sexual relationship. However, he stipulated that there had been no relationship between them until after Breedlove turned 18. Adams said he'd previously lied about the relationship in order to avoid feeding negative stereotypes of gay men as somehow predatory.[11]
  • In 2008, Willamette Week's Beth Slovic drew a conclusion that former senator Gordon Smith employed undocumented workers at his frozen-foods processing operation in Eastern Oregon while acknowledging that she has no definitive proof.[12][13]
  • Making public Neil Goldschmidt's long-concealed sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl. Goldschmidt, a former Oregon governor, was mayor of Portland at the time of the abuse. After Willamette Week contacted him for comments regarding its upcoming story about that alleged misconduct, Goldschmidt went ahead and confessed to the relationship in an interview published in The Oregonian. That interview ran prior to Willamette Week's report appearing in print, and was intended to preempt the story's publication.[14] However, the alternative weekly did finally get the scoop, breaking the Goldschmidt story first on its website.[15] Nigel Jaquiss won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for his work on that story.
  • In 2015, then Governor John Kitzhaber's fiancee, Cylvia Hayes confirmed Willamette Weeks' report that she married an 18 year old Ethiopian immigrant in 1997 in exchange for a $5,000 payment so he could keep his residency to attend school in United States.[16]

Alumni

A number of notable journalists, writers and artists have worked at Willamette Week over the past several decades, including:

See also

References
  1. "Contact Us". Willamette Week. Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  2. "The 2005 Pulitzer Prize Winners - Investigative Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. 2005. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  3. Bellotti, Mary (April 25, 1999). "Alternative success story". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  4. Nicholas, Jonathan (January 9, 1984). "Free, and fresh, weekly". The Oregonian, p. B1.
  5. "At Age 33, 'Willamette Week' Has Best Year Ever For Display Ads, Publisher Says". Editor & Publisher. November 16, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  6. Mesh, Aaron (March 14, 2020). "Portland Mercury Halts Print Editions Amid Coronavirus Shutdowns". Willamette Week. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  7. WW Staff (June 11, 2015). "WW Has A New Publisher". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on June 15, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  8. Meeker, Richard H. (June 17, 2015). "To Our Readers [editorial]". Willamette Week. p. 5. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  9. Walker, Mason (June 12, 2015). "Willamette Week publisher steps down". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  10. "A fresh look and future memorial to John Callahan at Legacy Good Samaritan Park (photos)". The Oregonian. July 19, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  11. Griffin, Anna (January 25, 2009). "Sam Adams decides to stay put; can Portland move on?". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  12. Mapes, Jeff (September 10, 2008). "Willamette Week raises illegal immigration issue at Gordon Smith's frozen-food plant". oregonlive. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  13. Slovic, Beth (September 10, 2008). "Señor Smith". Willamette Week. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  14. Boulé, Margie (January 31, 2011). "Neil Goldschmidt's sex-abuse victim tells of the relationship that damaged her life". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  15. Jaquiss, Nigel (May 12, 2004). "The 30-Year Secret". Willamette Week. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  16. Johnson, Kirk; Paulson, Michael (February 16, 2015) [published online February 15]. "Oregon Governor and Fiancée Walked Tangled Path to Exit". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  17. "Phil Keisling". Hatfield School of Government: Center for Public Service. Portland State University. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  18. Sorg, Lisa (2012-08-22). "Steve Schewel announces sale of Independent Weekly". INDY Week. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
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