King County Journal

The King County Journal was a newspaper published in Kent, Washington. It was formed in 2002 as a combination of the old "Valley Daily News" of Kent and the "Journal-American" of Bellevue, which merged when they were bought by Peter Horowitz. The newspaper had an initial combined circulation of 60,000. [cite news
title=Sound Publishing, Inc.
url=http://www.soundpublishing.com/index.php/corporate/article/sound_publishing_to_consolidate_press_operations/
accessdate=2007-11-16] The "Journal-American" was formed in 1976 from Bellevue and Kirkland weeklies, while the "Valley Daily News" was created from non-daily newspapers in Renton, Kent and Auburn.cite web
last=Pryne | first=Eric | year=2006
url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003500223_kingcountyjournal290.html
title=Daily King County Journal to print final edition Jan. 21
publisher=The Seattle Times
accessdate=2007-11-16 ]

In 2003 the paper eliminated zoned editions for the Eastside and South King County in an effort to reduce losses. [cite news
last=Dietrich | first=Heidi | date=September 5, 2003
title=Zoning out: King County Journal merges editions in bid to become profitable
publisher=Puget Sound Business Journal
url=http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2003/09/08/story4.html
accessdate=2007-11-16 ] A restructuring in 2004 resulted in laying off 7% of its staff. Most of the cuts were from the editorial staff, and included editor Tom Wolfe, who had served on the job since 1995. Barbara Morgan, the executive editor, took over the newsroom. [cite news
last=McCarrell | first=Pat | date=March 24, 2004
title=King County Journal restructuring, laying off 7 percent of staff
publisher=Puget Sound Business Journal
url=http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/03/22/daily26.html
accessdate=2007-11-16 ]

The Sound Publishing, a subsidiary of Black Publishing of Canada, bought the paper in 2006, and closed the paper on January 21, 2007. [cite news
last=Richman | first=Dan | date=June 20, 2006
title=King County Journal for sale
publisher=Seattle P.I.
url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/274538_horvitz20.html
accessdate=2007-11-15 ] In the face of competition from the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspapers, the combined Journal papers had been losing money since 1994, while circulation had dropped to 39,100. [citeweb
url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/297601_journal28ww.html
title=King County Journal to close
accessdate=2007-01-22 | last=James | first=Andrea
date=December 28, 2006 | format=HTML ] At the time it folded, the King County Journal was the state's eighth largest paper.

Before its purchase by Black Publishing, the "King County Journal" also published nine community newspapers ranging from Bothell/Kenmore to Kent. Two were published weekly, while the other seven were published twice monthly. With the closure of the "Journal", Black has announced increased frequency in the papers: all will be published either weekly or twice weekly beginning in early 2007.

References

External links

* [http://www.lib.washington.edu/Mcnews/newspapers/current_wash.html Microform and Newspaper Collections]
*cite web
last=Colón | first=Aly | date=April 22, 2003
url=http://www.poynter.org/content/content_print.asp?id=30941&custom=
title=Faking The News | publisher=Poynter Online
accessdate=2007-11-16