 Cover | |
| Type | Alternative weekly |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | City of Roses Newspapers |
| Founder(s) | Ronald A. Buel |
| Publisher | Anna Zusman [1] (2023–) |
| Editor | Mark Zusman |
| Founded | November 1974 |
| Headquarters | 2220 NW Quimby St. Portland, OR 97210 US |
| Circulation | 25,000(as of 2023) [2] |
| Website | wweek |
Willamette Week (WW) is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture.
Willamette Week was founded in 1974 by Ronald A. Buel, who served as its first publisher. [3] It was later owned by the Eugene Register-Guard, which sold it in the fall of 1983 to Richard H. Meeker and Mark Zusman, [4] who took the positions of publisher and editor, respectively. Meeker had been one of the paper's first reporters, starting in 1974, and Zusman had joined the paper as a business writer in 1982. [3] Meeker and Zusman formed City of Roses Newspaper Company to publish WW and a sister publication, Fresh Weekly, a free guide to local arts and entertainment. WW had a paid circulation at that time, with about 12,000 subscribers. [4]
A major change was made in January 1984, when Fresh Weekly was merged into WW, the paper's print run was increased to 50,000 and paid circulation was discontinued, with WW thereafter being distributed free. [4] WW increased circulation to 90,000 copies by 2007. [5] Circulation has declined to 50,000 by March 2020. [6]
In June 2015, Richard Meeker stepped down as Willamette Week's publisher, after more than 31 years in the position. [7] [8] Editor Mark Zusman succeeded him as publisher, while also retaining the editorship. [8] [9] Meeker planned to continue working for the City of Roses Newspaper Company, WW's owner. [7] [9]
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Prior to his death in 2010, cartoonist John Callahan's long-running comic "Callahan" appeared weekly in the paper, for almost 30 years. [10]
Since 1984, the paper has been free; as of 2007 over 80% of its revenue was generated through display advertising. [5] For 2007, its revenue was expected to be about $6.25 million, a four or five percent increase over 2006, a growth that occurred in spite of a significant decline in classified advertising that the publisher attributed to competition from Craigslist. [5] Its pre-tax profit in 2006 was around 5%, a third to a half of what large mass-media companies require. [5]
Notable stories first reported by WW include:
Journalists, writers and artists who have worked at Willamette Week include:
The Oregonian is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850, and published daily since 1861. It is the largest newspaper in Oregon and the second largest in the Pacific Northwest by circulation. It is one of the few newspapers with a statewide focus in the United States. The Sunday edition is published under the title The Sunday Oregonian. The regular edition was published under the title The Morning Oregonian from 1861 until 1937.
Neil Edward Goldschmidt was an American businessman and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who held local, state, and federal offices over three decades. After serving as mayor of Portland, Oregon, the United States Secretary of Transportation under President Jimmy Carter and governor of Oregon, Goldschmidt was at one time considered the most powerful and influential figure in Oregon's politics. In 2004, Goldschmidt's career and legacy were irreparably damaged by revelations of the ongoing sexual abuse of a young teenage girl beginning in 1973, during his first term as mayor of Portland.
Nigel Jaquiss is an American journalist who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, for his work exposing former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt's sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl while he was mayor of Portland, Oregon. His story was published in Willamette Week in May 2004. He continues to write for Willamette Week.
Samuel Francis Adams is an American politician in Portland, Oregon. Adams was mayor of Portland from 2009 to 2012 and previously served on the Portland City Council and as chief of staff to former Mayor Vera Katz. Adams was the first openly gay mayor of a large U.S. city.
Indy Week, formerly known as the Independent Weekly and originally the North Carolina Independent, is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and distributed throughout the Research Triangle area and counties. Its first issue was published in April 1983.
Vicki Lynn Walker is an American politician. She served as the Oregon State Director for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A member of the Democratic Party, Walker previously served in both houses of the Oregon Legislature and briefly served as chair of the state's parole board. Walker is known as an advocate for utility customers and as an outspoken critic of influential former Governor Neil Goldschmidt.
Robert Boisseau Pamplin Jr. is an American businessman, philanthropist, and minister. He is also noted as an educator, historic preservationist and author.
James Michael Francke was an American judge from New Mexico and director of the state's Corrections Department, the governmental bureau which manages prisons, inmates, and parolees. He was later appointed by then-Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt to oversee a plan to double the state's inmate capacity as director of Oregon's Department of Corrections. On January 18, 1989, his body was discovered outside the department's office building in Salem; an autopsy determined he had been murdered the night before. A local petty criminal was eventually tried and convicted for the crime, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, the convicted killer maintains his innocence, and several conspiracy theories have been advocated, claiming that the killing was a murder for hire conducted by corrupt state prison officials threatened by an investigation Francke was conducting into prison mismanagement. In 2019, the man convicted for the murder of Francke was released from prison after his murder conviction was thrown out by a federal magistrate in Portland, who ruled he did not receive a fair trial; four years later, he was given a full release when his indictment by the county was dismissed with prejudice and his murder conviction was expunged from the record.
Mark Zusman is the editor and publisher of Willamette Week, an alternative newspaper and media company based in Portland, Oregon. He has been the paper's editor since 1983, and became its publisher in 2015, when Richard Meeker stepped down from that position.
Kari Chisholm is an American political consultant and sports commentator based in Portland, Oregon. He became known for commentary on the Heisman Trophy, and his now-defunct site StiffArmTrophy.com correctly predicted the winner of the trophy every year from 2002 to 2012. He is the co-founder and publisher of BlueOregon, a defunct blog.
Just Out was an LGBTQ publication in Portland, Oregon founded in 1983 by Jay Brown and Renee LaChance. It ceased publication as a semimonthly newspaper in December 2011. In February 2012, Glenn-Kipp Publishing, Inc purchased the Just Out brand assets. Just Out ceased being published as a monthly LGBTQ magazine in February 2013.
Terrence Patrick Bean is an American political fundraiser, a civil rights activist, and LGBT rights movement activist. He is known for co-founding several national LGBT rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. As of 2012, he is the CEO and President of Bean Investment Real Estate and resides in Portland, Oregon. Since 2014, Bean had been the subject of sexual assault allegations; all charges were dismissed in January 2022.
Sally Amanda Marshall is an American lawyer in the U.S. state of Oregon. She was, most immediately, the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, the top federal prosecutor position in the state. She resigned her position on April 24, 2015, amid an internal review, citing unspecified health issues.
Cylvia Lynne Hayes is an American consultant who was the First Lady of Oregon from 2011 to 2015 as the fiancée of former Governor John Kitzhaber. Hayes was an unsuccessful candidate for the Oregon House of Representatives in 2002, running against state representative Ben Westlund. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Mark Allen Callahan is an American information technology consultant and perennial candidate. He was the Republican nominee in the 2016 United States Senate election in Oregon.
Journalism in the U.S. state of Oregon had its origins from the American settlers of the Oregon Country in the 1840s. This was decades after explorers like Robert Gray and Lewis and Clark first arrived in the region, several months before the first newspaper was issued in neighboring California, and several years before the United States formally asserted control of the region by establishing the Oregon Territory.
The Mid-county Memo was a monthly newspaper serving the Gateway and Parkrose neighborhoods of east Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was founded in May 1985.
The 2016 OregonSecretary of State election was held on November 8, 2016, to elect the Oregon Secretary of State. Incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins declined to seek election; she was appointed in March 2015 following Kate Brown's ascension to the governorship.
Ataula was a Spanish and Catalan restaurant in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The restaurant earned Jose Chesa a James Beard Foundation Award nomination in the Best Chef: Northwest category.
Lucier was a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, that specialized in European cuisine. The business, which was described as "the most opulent restaurant space in Portland history", only operated for seven months in 2008. News outlets described the failed venture as "the most colossal faceplant in Portland dining history" and the city's "greatest restaurant boondoggle". Lucier was the only restaurant in Oregon that the American Automobile Association awarded with four diamonds.