 | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Pamplin Media Group |
| Founder(s) | Harry L. St. Clair |
| Managing editor | Steve Brown |
| Founded | 1911 |
| Language | English |
| City | Gresham, Oregon, U.S. |
| Circulation | 9,068(as of 2022) [1] |
| Sister newspapers | Sandy Post |
| OCLC number | 30722087 |
| Website | theoutlookonline |
The Outlook is a weekly newspaper published in Gresham, Oregon, a suburb of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. [2] It was founded in 1911, [3] [4] and is owned by the Pamplin Media Group. [5]
On March 3, 1911, Harry L. St. Clair, a pastor turned printer, founded the Gresham Outlook after having previously worked at the Beaver State Herald. [6] At the time he lived in a small cottage, was several hundred dollars in debt and owned a single linotype machine. He ran the business with help of his wife and son. [7] The Outlook Publishing Company was incorporated in 1917. [8] The printing plant branched out in the '30s into producing shooting targets for the NRA, making 300,000 a year, along with printing the regional shooting magazine Windage. [9]
St. Clair died in 1938 and the Outlook was passed to his family, [10] who sold it in 1941 to Thomas Purcell. [11] In 1960, Purcell sold the paper to Lee Irwin and Walt Taylor, [12] [13] and Irwin served as publisher from then until 1982. [14] He was followed by Robert Caldwell for a relatively short period, with Steven J. Clark being named publisher effective April 4, 1983. [15]
The paper was embroidered in controversy around 1981 after newsroom staff learned of a pyramid scheme involving Reynolds School District employees and didn't report the story until it was widely known to the public. Reader accused The Outlook of attempting a cover-up and wrote angry letters, canceled subscriptions or boycotted the paper. A city council member refused to talk to reporters anymore. Locals even went so far as to call the paper "The Outrage, The Overlook, The Cover-up." [16]
Irwin and Taylor sold the Gresham Outlook in 1977 to the Democrat-Herald Publishing Co., which published the Albany Democrat-Herald . [17] Capital Cities purchased the company in 1980, [18] which itself was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1995. [19] Disney sold its Oregon newspapers to Lee Enterprises in 1997, [20] and three years later Lee sold The Outlook to Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. in 2000. [21] Pamplin Media Group was sold in June 2024 to Carpenter Media Group. [22] In June 2025, the paper's print schedule was decreased from twice to once a week. [23] A month later the Sandy Post was absorbed into the paper. At that time the Outlook only had one reporter on staff. [24]