Courier-Herald downtown office closing

Published 12:45 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2026

After more than 125 years, the Courier-Herald is joining many small businesses that have found that technology allows us to operate more efficiently without a physical office.

The Courier-Herald will remain focused on the Enumclaw community, and I will continue to lead the paper and its reporting.

When the Courier-Herald moves out of the downtown office, I’ll be working remotely from my home in Enumclaw. Details on how to contact the newspaper via mail or in-person will be determined at a later date, as well as how readers may be able to request or pick up a copy of older papers.

The paper’s extensive records, dating back to 1923, have been donated to the Enumclaw Historical Society so as to still be accessible to the public.

The museum is open Thursdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.

COURIER-HERALD HISTORY

D.C. Ashmun started the King County Courier, later known as the Enumclaw Courier, in 1900 in a building on Railroad Avenue. It was described as a “mom and pop” operation, with Ashmun working side-by-side to print the paper.

A fire, caused by an overturned coal oil lamp, destroyed the building in 1903. The Enumclaw Courier’s earliest papers burned as well, lost forever to history.

In February 1904 the Ashmuns sold the operation to Dr. H.H. Rust, who brought in Seattle newspaper man Vernon Van Buskirk and invested in new equipment.

Back then, $1 bought you a year subscription to the 11×16 inch paper.

In 1906, Van Buskirk bought The Courier. The Courier enjoyed being the toast of the town until November 1909 when The Herald, established by C.C. Reber and Ashmun, set up shop at the corner of Griffin Avenue and Wells Street.

The Herald carried preprinted national and international news and advertising. The Courier, in response, expanded its local coverage to include the outlying communities of Fir Grove, Osceola, Boise, Veazie and Palmer.

The Courier added sports coverage in 1913, further cementing its popularity among the locals.

The Herald went through a number of changes in owners and operators with Clarence Lafromboise eventually gaining control. In 1933, The Courier and The Herald merged with Lafromboise and Van Buskirk as owners and Van Buskirk serving as publisher. He sold his interest to Lafromboise a few years later.

The Courier-Herald published its first issue on Oct. 6, 1933, and the price of a year subscription rose to a whopping $1.50.

Lee and Bob Holm started the Buckley News in the late 1930s and would later purchase The Buckley Banner, which printed its first pages in 1889.

During the war years, The Buckley News and the Courier-Herald worked together to make sure they had printing supplies and equipment, as materials were scarce and outside help non-existent.

In 1954, Robert “Bud” Olson became editor of The Courier-Herald. The Courier-Herald consolidated with its rival, the Buckley News-Banner, in 1973, a year after The Courier-Herald stopped printing in its Enumclaw office.

Lafromboise died in 1986 and Olson a year later.

Westmedia of Longview, Wash., owner of The Longview Daily News, entered a two-year management agreement with Lafromboise’s widow with an option to purchase in 1990, which it exercised.

Westmedia was owned by the Natt family, which included Tedd Natt, a Pulitzer Prize-winning publisher for the Daily News’ coverage of the Mount St. Helens eruption.

Jack Darnton took over editing chores for Enumclaw’s 6,800-circulation newspaper and later became publisher.

The Courier-Herald was challenged in 1988 when The Enumclaw Eagle started printing with backing from local businesses.

“It was tough competition,” a 2000 Courier-Herald 100th year anniversary article read, “but the Eagle goofed when it switched from free distribution to paid subscriptions. It couldn’t match The Courier-Herald’s numbers and went into a slow death spiral.”

The Courier-Herald was named one of the top newspapers in the state for its size and circulation in 1998.

In 1999, The Longview Daily News was sold to Howard Publishing, but The Courier-Herald remained a holding of the Natt family.

A few months later, Ted Natt’s death in a helicopter crash rocked The Courier-Herald. Ownership was shared by his estate, brother John Natt and son David Natt.

Bill Marcum became publisher in 2001 and would later become a partial owner with the Natt family. In November 2003, The Bonney Lake-Lake Tapps Courier-Herald produced its first issue.

In the summer of 2008, the two Courier-Herald newspapers were purchased by Sound Publishing and, soon after, the existing Sumner Reporter was merged with the Bonney Lake edition.

Staff at this time was between 12 and 14 people, depending on the coming and going of reporters and sales staff.

The Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier-Herald stopped publishing in 2016, with The Enumclaw Courier-Herald focusing solely on Enumclaw, Black Diamond, and Buckley.

In May 2019, staff moved from the large office on Cole Street to a small office around the corner.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many newspapers saw a reduction in staff, including The Courier-Herald and Sound Publishing; editor Ray Miller-Still was one of a handful of reporters that remained employed throughout the course of the pandemic to cover King County as a whole and Enumclaw specifically.

Sound Publishing was able to bolster its ranks slightly while the pandemic waned, but resources remained tight.

Carpenter Media Group, which purchased Sound Publishing and the Courier-Herald in March 2024, sold the newspaper’s office building on Cole Street to American Heritage Insurance on June 30, 2025. The parties agreed to a one-year lease.

I’ve been the sole paid reporter and photographer at The Courier-Herald since the summer of 2023. I also oversee website and social media management.

For a year now, I’ve been the sole occupant if 1925 Wilson Avenue. I’m sorry to see our downtown office go.

But I remain committed to reporting local news – it sure helps that I live in town – and you’ll see me around when I put together a plan to continue being open, accessible, and visible downtown, even if it’s just one day a week.

The Courier-Herald has a storied history, too much to recount in just one article; this is yet but another chapter.