To answer your questions, the Free Press closed in 1994 in a fight to the death battle between our owners (Thomson Newspapers) and the GCIU union. I moved to the state in 1998 to start a newspaper in Federal Way, WA, about a half-hour south of Seattle on the 5. Then I served as President/CEO of Sound Publishing which owned 17 newspapers in WA state. While there I was recruited by McClatchy Newspapers to publish the Tacoma News Tribune and, later, The Olympian in Olympia.

The remaining newspaper in the Valley is owned by Black Press, which isn’t interested in journalism, only in flyer insert revenue. It’s a rapidly changing industry.

 George