''The Wenatchee World'' is the leading daily

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 ...

Wenatchee Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

and

East Wenatchee East Wenatchee is a city in Douglas County, Washington, Douglas County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census was 13,190, a 129.1% increase on the 2000 census, having annexed m ...

, Washington, United States. Serving Chelan,

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...

and other North Central Washington counties since 1905, ''The Wenatchee World'' prints on its front page that it is "Published in the Apple Capital of the World and the Buckle of the Power Belt of the Great Northwest".

History

The World Publishing Company was founded in 1905 by businessmen C.A. Briggs and Nat Ament. On July 3, 1905, the company published the first issue of ''The Wenatchee Daily World''. The issue included a pledge "to be an active, helping factor in not alone the city of

and the county of Chelan, but also in our neighbor counties of

and Okanogan." The newspaper was a forceful proponent for economic development of the Columbia Basin and the area the newspaper called North Central Washington. Two years later, the newspaper was purchased by Rufus Woods and his twin brother Ralph. Rufus published the newspaper while Ralph, a Tacoma attorney, provided legal advice to the fledgling paper. Later, their cousin Warren Woods joined the company to handle the newspaper's finances. Rufus Woods and the ''Daily World'' became integrally involved in the 23-year battle for Coulee Dam and the

Columbia Basin Irrigation Project The Columbia Basin Project (or CBP) in Central Washington, United States, is the irrigation network that the Grand Coulee Dam makes possible. It is the largest water reclamation project in the United States, supplying irrigation water to over of ...

. Woods wrote the first story about the proposal in 1918, which was followed by hundreds of articles about the project and editorials promoting the concept. Upon Rufus Woods' death in 1950, his son Wilfred became editor and publisher of the newspaper and continued to promote economic development in North Central Washington. Warren Woods' son, Robert, was the newspaper's editor and later editorial page writer. In the 1960s and 1970s, the ''Daily World'' (the name was shortened to ''The Wenatchee World'' in 1971) continued to promote regional development, sponsoring a series of trips through Canada and Alaska to study the region's energy resources. In 1997, Wilfred Woods turned the management of the company over to his son, Rufus Woods. The newspaper was owned by the families of Wilfred and Robert Woods until March 2018, when Rufus Woods announced that he sold the newspaper to

Wick Communications Wick Communications (formerly known as Wick Newspaper Group) is a family-owned media company with 27 newspapers and 18 specialty publications in 11 states. They also publish websites and other specialty publications. The home offices are in Sier ...

. All of the employees at that time were offered jobs with the new owners.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenatchee World Publications established in 1905 Newspapers published in Washington (state) 1905 establishments in Washington (state)