A new La Conner newspaper launched in March, following the closing of one of the state’s oldest weeklies
The letters, emails and calls have been pouring in since the launch of La Conner Community News.
“When we were delivering the paper last week, people would stop our news delivery volunteers on the street and ask for copies of the paper,” editor and publisher Kari Mar said. “We’ve gotten so many thank-you notes that it’s hard to even count them.”
The La Conner Community News delivered its first print edition last week after launching a website and weekly newsletter earlier this spring.
The paper delivered nearly 2,500 copies out of a run of 3,000. Not bad for a town of about 1,500 households.
The first edition was free — going forward, people will need to pay $2 a copy at local stores or subscribe for $60 a year for students and La Conner and Swinomish Tribal Community residents or $95 a year for others.
The launch is an exciting development for a town that rallied to save the outlet’s predecessor, the La Conner Weekly News. That paper closed in December after a community group failed to reach an agreement with the paper’s owner to buy it.
“It’s almost like a jigsaw puzzle, just pieces falling into place,” said Andrew Ashmore, one of the original members of the community group and the Community News’ board of directors president.
One of those pieces was Mar — a former Seattle Times journalist who had been considering buying the paper.
“It is a little bit heartbreaking that we weren’t able to buy the last paper, and I mean that because we would have loved to continue the tradition of that paper,” she said.
That loss meant Mar’s paper couldn’t carry over assets like legal notification revenue or a subscriber list. But it also allowed Mar’s team to start fresh with things like more efficient tech and software.
The team is still soaking up the excitement of the first edition, but it’s also looking ahead. Future tasks include launching a separate events and tourism publication and offering in-person community trainings, like how to take notes in a public meeting or how to interview an elder.
Managing Editor Staci Baird said the team is also excited to dive into more in-depth and solutions reporting.
“Some of those bigger challenges and issues that small towns across America are going through right now with growth, housing, transportation and climate — you name it,” she said. “People that live in this community can actively participate in the conversations. And they do, a lot of them. That’s one thing that’s been really exciting, is that people are passionate, and they don’t just sit back and watch. They will stand up, they will say something, they will ask the questions.”
Fresh perspectives
The La Conner Community News’ all-female leadership stands out in an industry where leadership is still male-dominated despite more and more women joining the ranks of journalists.
Mar is joined by Baird — who brings over two decades of journalism education experience, including with Cascadia Daily News — and Creative Director Casey Lynn from Arlington — who began her career in local news and has worked in design, branding and digital media.
The team hopes to bring a fresh perspective to their newsroom. Mar says that starts with creating a “humane” workplace that includes a livable wage, flexible hours and a work-life balance.
“It had to be sustainable for not just the community but for us as people too,” she said. “If I’m going to be a newspaper where everybody’s stories get told and we all come together as a community, I have to be able to staff the paper well enough.”
She’s prioritizing things like ensuring that domestic violence and sexual abuse cases don’t fall through the cracks and providing equal coverage to La Conner’s neighbor, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.
Bill Reynolds — who worked for the previous paper and was hired on by the La Conner Community News — said he is impressed with the leadership.
“They have just great energy. They’re so tech savvy, strong journalism backgrounds, and their pace is just amazing,” he said. “I think they’re like the next generation of journalism.”
Financial outlook
The paper is exploring a hybrid model: the newsroom and website are supported by donations, and the print publication is covered by print subscriptions.
Mar stressed the separation protects the journalism functions of the organization and allows it to adapt if at some point community demand for a print product changes. In the future, Mar said they may look into other options like grant writing or an endowment.
“Financially, things are looking pretty good,” she said, adding that the paper is about on track with donations and ahead of her expectations with subscription and ad revenue.
She is projecting the paper will be in the black by October based on numbers from the previous paper with adjustments for current ad revenue.
Ashmore added that the goal is to fundraise $200,000 — with current donations totalling over $50,000.
An informed risk
Starting a newspaper in 2025 — especially one in a small, rural town — might seem like a fool’s errand.
Local news has taken significant hits in recent years. In fact, a 2024 report by the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University found newspapers closed at a rate of more than two per week last year. Although digital news sites have been on the rise, according to the report, the vast majority are centered in metropolitan areas.
Mar is well aware of the industry trends, and the decision to start the paper wasn’t something she took lightly. She spent about a year and a half researching the La Conner paper and traveling to newspapers across the country.
“I think our outlook is very good, but there are a lot of market forces and a lot of social forces against the news right now,” she said. “It is kind of a testy environment.”
The town’s demographics do tend to skew older, with a median age of 57.6 years — making the print edition of the paper a much more feasible prospect since many of the residents prefer to consume news from a print paper.
Mar doesn’t think the endeavor would be successful in all communities.
“The thing that gives me hope and gives me confidence every day is the community. This is a community that loves its newspaper,” she said.
No one knows that better than Reynolds, a La Conner native who has worked as a reporter in the town on and off since the late ‘70s.
“La Conner has always been a really good news town,” he said, adding that there is a plethora of coverage options, from interesting features on artistic residents to the area’s unique geographic location near the Skagit River, farmland and forests.
Lynn hopes to capture the town’s distinct essence in the print version of the paper.
“I want to develop a system that is uniquely La Conner and brings the energy and love of their arts to the readers of La Conner Community News,” she wrote in an email. “As we move forward, and more newspapers are bought by hedge funds or shift to a more transient digital format, the art of the print publication has started to be watered down or even lost.”
Running the paper has been a wild but rewarding ride for Mar, who is returning to journalism after a 20-year stint in tech.
“I think it’s hard for people to understand the journalistic impulse to serve a community by helping inform them and share information back with them,” she said. “Getting to do that again is a dream come true, and getting to do that for a community that really thrives on journalism and loves their local newspaper is the most incredible feeling.”
— By Sydnee Chapman