Cover of the mailer being distributed to announce the new Northshore News weekly.
Chapter 3 of the ongoing “Eastside Story” begins with the revelation of plans for a new weekly newspaper and website to challenge the venerable Woodinville Weekly. But, before we reveal more, a review of Chapters 1 and 2 is in order.
Chapter 1 began in January, 2019, when the Bellevue-based EastSide Media Corp. announced its formation, with eventual plans to launch a new Eastside daily newspaper, bolstered by a heavy dose of digital communications. The principals were Co-Founder and Publisher Eric LaFontaine, Mike Flynn, former president and publisher of the Puget Sound Business Journal, and Patrick Scanlon, a former board member of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and VP of USA TODAY Sports.
In quick order, Flynn and Scanlon departed, and Chapter 2 was written when LaFontaine purchased The Woodinville Weekly from Julie Bosely, daughter of Carol Edwards, who founded the paper in 1976. Almost immediately, he announced plans to adopt a subscription-based model for circulation of the print publication. This was a change from the free-distribution model that Edwards introduced in 1976.
The plot thickens with the progress to Chapter 3. Bob Kirkpatrick, former managing editor of The Weekly, parted ways with Eric last Fall. He then found a financial backer, launched the nshorenews.com website in late March and will deliver the inaugural issue of the newspaper in June, in head-to-head competition with his former boss.
The cover above is from the four-page piece delivered the week of March 22 to 30,000 mailboxes in Northeast King County, from Kenmore and Bothell on the west to Woodinville/Hollywood Hill on the east and a small section of South Snohomish County, north of Woodinville. It’s in the full-color format and stock of the actual newspaper, which will debut at 12 pages. Click HERE to view the full mailer.
“We see an opportunity to bring value to both residents and advertisers in this strong marketplace. And competition always benefits all those involved.” Kirkpatrick said. “The mailer is intended to announce and give recipients a sense of the new newspaper, introduce our website and get prospective readers in our circulation area engaged from the outset, with our ‘Best Of 2021’ poll.”
The mailer was designed by Book House Publishing, whose other print clients include the Westside Seattle weekly and the Unite Seattle quarterly magazine.
Kirkpatrick is a graduate of Central Washington University. He held editorial posts with several Central Washington newspapers and was city editor of Sound Publishing’s Daily World in Aberdeen, before joining The Weekly, and has 23 awards from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for his writing and photography. You can contact him at bob@nshorenews.com.
Stay tuned for Chapter 4, coming in June.
—Larry Coffman