''The King County Journal'' was a

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

published in

Kent, Washington Kent is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan area and had a population of 136,588 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest municipality in greater Seattle and t ...

, United States. It was formed in 2002 as a combination of the old ''Valley Daily News'' of Kent and the ''Journal-American'' of

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

, which merged when they were bought by Peter Horvitz. The newspaper had an initial combined circulation of 60,000. The ''Journal-American'' (later the ''Eastside Journal'') was formed in 1976 from Bellevue and Kirkland weeklies, while the ''Valley Daily News'' (later the ''South County Journal'') was created from non-daily newspapers in Renton, Kent and Auburn. In 2003 the paper eliminated zoned editions for the Eastside and South King County in an effort to reduce losses. A restructuring in 2004 resulted in laying off 7% of its staff. Most of the cuts were from the editorial staff, and included editor Tom Wolfe, who had served on the job since 1995. Barbara Morgan, the executive editor, took over the newsroom. Sound Publishing, a subsidiary of

Black Press Black Press Group Ltd. is a Canadian publisher of prominent daily newspapers in Hawaii and Alaska and numerous non-daily newspapers in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, and (via Sound Publishing) the U.S. state of Washington. Black Press M ...

of Canada, bought the paper in 2006, and closed the paper on January 21, 2007. In the face of competition from the

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

and

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...

newspapers, the combined Journal papers had been losing money since 1994, while circulation had dropped to 39,100. At the time it folded, the King County Journal was the state's eighth largest paper. Before its purchase by Black Press, the ''King County Journal'' also published nine community newspapers ranging from

Bothell Bothell () is a city in King and Snohomish counties in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of the Seattle metropolitan area, situated near the northeast end of Lake Washington. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 48,161 resident ...

/ Kenmore to Kent. Two were published weekly, while the other seven were published twice monthly. With the closure of the ''Journal'', Black announced increased frequency in the papers: all would be published either weekly or twice weekly beginning in early 2007. As of 2006, David Black became the largest publisher of community newspapers in the state.

References

External links

*{{cite web , last=Colón , first=Aly , date=April 22, 2003 , url=http://www.poynter.org/content/content_print.asp?id=30941&custom= , title=Faking The News , publisher=Poynter Online , accessdate=November 16, 2007 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20031224173754/http://www.poynter.org/content/content_print.asp?id=30941&custom= , archivedate=December 24, 2003

King County Journal ''The King County Journal'' was a newspaper published in Kent, Washington, United States. It was formed in 2002 as a combination of the old ''Valley Daily News'' of Kent and the ''Journal-American'' of Bellevue, which merged when they were bought ...

Black Press Companies based in Kent, Washington Defunct newspapers published in Washington (state) 2007 disestablishments in Washington (state) 2002 establishments in Washington (state)