The Skanner

Last updated
The Skanner News
Type Weekly newspaper
PublisherBernard V. Foster
EditorBobbie Dore Foster
FoundedOctober 1975
HeadquartersPortland, Oregon
Circulation 75,000
ISSN 1543-6357
OCLC number 12566075
Website Official website
Free online archives University of Oregon Libraries

The Skanner or The Skanner News is an African-American newspaper covering the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Its head office is in Portland, Oregon, with an additional office in Seattle, Washington. It discontinued its regular print publication in 2020. [1] The major state newspaper, The Oregonian , has published items from The Skanner on its website Oregon Live. [2]

Contents

History

Bernard Foster started the paper in 1975. He became part-owner of the Northwest Dispatch in Tacoma, Washington in 1985, and launched a Seattle edition of the Skanner in 1996. [3] Owners Bernie Foster and Bobbie Doré Foster founded the paper after being inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr.

Foster served as secretary of the West Coast Black Publishers Association as early as 1983. [4] In 1992, Foster, then president of the organization, announced a deal with Nordstrom to spend $220,000 on advertising in 20 Black papers in the west. [5]

In 1989, The Skanner began campaigning for the renaming of Portland's Union Avenue to Martin Luther King Boulevard. The campaign was successful. [6] In 1990, a fire destroyed a warehouse owned by The Skanner, causing $28,000 in damages. [7] The cause was determined as arson. [8]

In 2009, the newspaper's owners installed security cameras on their head office in North Portland, to monitor an adjacent hot spot of drug deals and shootings, and made sure loiterers knew they were being watched. When crime went down by 50 percent, cops credited the decline in part to the paper's vigilance. [9]

Since 2012, The Skanner has displayed a solar meter [10] to chart the energy it is harnessing from the extensive banks of solar cells the owners had installed on the roof and awning of their North Killingsworth building. [9]

In early 2020, the media organization stopped publishing regular print editions, but has continued to publish online. In 2023, the newspaper sold its office building in Humboldt, Portland. [11]

References

  1. ↑ Herron, Elise (January 16, 2020). "The Skanner, One of Portland's Oldest Newspapers Serving the African-American Community, Retires Print Edition". Willamette Week. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  2. ↑ Swart, Cornelius (2012-11-28). "'I'll never look at Portland the same way again,' says Lisa Loving of The Skanner News: ONN partner Q & A". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
  3. ↑ "Third Black Weekly Published in Seattle". Editor & Publisher . April 14, 1990. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  4. ↑ "Newspeople In the News". Editor & Publisher . December 10, 1983. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  5. ↑ Kerwin, Ann Marie (June 27, 1992). "Nordstrom Targets Black Customers". Editor & Publisher . Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  6. ↑ "Photos for April 25, 2014". Portland Observer . Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  7. ↑ "Fire hits warehouse". The Oregonian. January 18, 1990. p. 23.
  8. ↑ "Police seek fire evidence". The Oregonian. January 30, 1990. p. 15.
  9. 1 2 Parks, Casey (2014-03-28). "The Skanner publishes meter to track solar energy it's harnessing for North Killingsworth businesses". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
  10. ↑ "The Skanner News Real-Time Solar Power Meter". The Skanner News. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
  11. ↑ Silverman, Julia (2023-09-03). "The Skanner newspaper enters new era, sells North Portland headquarters". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
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