Family steps up to preserve Wahkiakum County newspaper

When summer time started, the way forward for the Wahkiakum County Eagle was in limbo.

Now, because the season winds down, the beloved newspaper revealed alongside the Columbia River is seeing what could also be the absolute best final result.

Rick Nelson, who took over as writer after his father died in 2006, entered hospice in Might with no obvious plan for succession. The workers by no means stopped publishing the weekly, even after he died on June 2.

One possibility into consideration was forming a cooperative to take over the paper. Promoting had additionally been explored up to now.

The suspense ended on Aug. 3 when the paper ran a short announcement saying that the Nelson household would proceed publishing the paper.

Now main the operation are Rick Nelson’s son Jacob, a researcher at Microsoft Analysis in Redmond, and his husband, Seattle theater actor, director and playwright Brandon J. Simmons.

A turning level got here after they frolicked on the paper this summer time, serving to out and seeing the significance of the service it supplies.

“We’ve talked about this for years, Brandon and I’ve, in numerous methods,” Jacob Nelson, 45, stated. “However actually simply being there and speaking to the workers and other people in the neighborhood gave us a unique perspective on what we may do and the way we may contribute to the group.”

That is an uncommon scenario, a rarity in an trade the place 1000’s of weekly newspapers closed or offered to chains in recent times as homeowners retired or handed on, and their descendants selected different paths.

That Wahkiakum County continued to have a wholesome newspaper is a testomony to the Nelson household, which acquired the Eagle in 1966. It now has round 1,400 subscribers, which is spectacular for a county with round 1,900 households.

Jacob Nelson helped out as a child however was extra fascinated by expertise. With the household’s encouragement he went on to earn a Ph.D. from the College of Washington and joined Microsoft Analysis in 2016.

Now, when he’s not researching programmable community units that may speed up distributed programs in information facilities, he and Simmons are staying together with his mom and determining easy methods to reboot a 132-year-old newspaper.

The immersion in small-town newspapering is inspiring for Simmons, 42. He stated “it was considerably surprising that I used to be going to reply as powerfully as I did to being within the atmosphere after Rick’s dying.”

“I used to be going to do a two week trial run, see if it was a match for me to remain extra long run,” he stated. “On day two I went to Jacob and stated ‘I’m in, I’m in it to win it, I’m absolutely invested right here.’”

Simmons stated he was struck by how the workers talked concerning the group and the way the newspaper was put collectively.

Additionally they noticed potential in upgrading the paper’s on-line presence and sprucing up its historic constructing in Cathlamet. It began in 1891, the identical yr as The Seattle Instances, which has been owned by the Blethen household since 1896.

The Eagle has one other benefit, in comparison with most newspapers present process such a transition. Its new publishers aren’t beginning out with a debt burden and have assets, from Rick Nelson’s cautious stewardship, to put money into the corporate.

Additionally being up to date are processes to provide the paper.

Whereas distant work provides challenges, Nelson stated it’s a possibility to carry a brand new perspective to how the newspaper operates and enhance the workflow.

Adjustments have been coming regardless as a result of a linchpin of the workers, manufacturing and promoting supervisor Geri Florek, is retiring this yr after 30 years.

“She’s the actual hero,” Nelson stated.

It’s going to take time to determine easy methods to proceed doing all of the issues she does for the paper.

“The best way I’ve been serious about this, when Grandpa was doing this, when Dad was doing it, it was an all encompassing job,” he stated. “The heartbeat of newspaper manufacturing affected the whole lot else in life.”

New constructions must also assist the workers tackle duties that Rick Nelson was doing and “make the paper extra sustainable,” Jacob Nelson stated.

Even so, publishing a group newspaper requires a neighborhood presence to take care of relationships with readers and advertisers.

When requested whether or not they can try this whereas dividing time between Seattle and Cathlamet, Nelson and Simmons emphatically stated sure.

“We’re very a lot right here. I don’t see us going absolutely distant,” stated Simmons, who spent practically all the final 5 weeks in Cathlamet.

Theater work is sporadic and Nelson can do some work remotely, he stated, and staying with Nelson’s mom can be a superb factor now.

Will the group have issues about these new publishers with a house in Seattle?

“Fairly the opposite,” Ian Brandon, the Eagle’s promoting supervisor, instructed me.

“I feel the very best factor that might have occurred so far as the group perceives it’s for a household particular person, or a neighborhood particular person,” Brandon stated. “Jake, he’ll without end be native as a result of he grew up right here. That’s what’s vital.”

Dean Takko, a longtime subscriber and former legislator representing the realm, concurred.

“I can let you know there’s lots of people very comfortable that custom’s going to proceed on with their household,” stated Takko, who now lives in Longview.

Brandon stated he’s nonetheless a newcomer, seven years after shifting from a metropolis to the south.

“If I’d taken over,” Brandon stated, “there may be a bit little bit of ‘This man, from the metropolis of Vancouver, what’s he doing.’”