Plans to transfer The Spokesman-Review to a nonprofit are going slower than some expected but a surge of Tuesday donations helped.
The transfer is now expected to happen “in the first half of 2026,” according to a Sunday update by Rob Curley, the Spokane newspaper’s executive editor.
When the plan was announced in April, The Spokesman reported the transfer could happen “potentially by midsummer.” A “frequently asked questions” article said the deal could close “as early as October, but likely later.”
The Cowles family has owned The Spokesman for 132 years. With no heirs enthusiastic about running the business, the family decided to donate the paper and $2 million in seed funding to a nonprofit that Curley formed in 2023.
But the family’s offer is contingent on the community donating an additional $2 million.
Curley’s update said there’s an April 4 deadline for the fundraising and urged readers to donate on Giving Tuesday. Pledges until then had ranged from $5 to $500,000.
“We’re about 75% of the way there, but we have a ways to go,” he wrote.
The appeal worked, according to William “Stacey” Cowles, The Spokesman’s publisher. He said Giving Tuesday donations pushed the fundraising “probably over the two-thirds mark.”
“For the time being I think everything’s looking good,” Cowles said.
Progress is also happening on formation of the nonprofit’s board and the organizational structure, which should come together in the next four to eight weeks, he said.
“We’re not worried,” he said. “I figured it would take a year and I think Rob thought it would take three months. Between there we’ll get it done.”
Curley has suggested The Spokesman could become a model for other independent newspapers. It will continue to rely on revenue from subscriptions and ad sales, supplemented by donations, and he plans for it to collaborate with schools and other nonprofits.
Newspapers, still the predominant source of local news, are nearly all for-profit companies. But several dailies are now owned by nonprofits, including papers in Salt Lake City, Philadelphia and Tampa. The National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit formed in 2021, also acquired papers in Maine, Colorado and Georgia.
Spokane will be a test of whether a smaller market can support a local, nonprofit daily.
This comes as newspapers are evolving and exploring different ways to continue operating.
As I reported last month, the number of independent publishers is declining. They accounted for most of the 136 newspaper closures and mergers since July 2024, according to research by Northwestern University’s Medill School.
Owners approaching retirement may not have family members or others willing to take over the business. Selling to chains may be difficult in the current market and they are likely to cut newsrooms.
Operating as a nonprofit is no guarantee of success, as evidenced by two major pullbacks this year.
In April the nonprofit outlet Houston Landing closed after two years, despite raising $20 million. Then in May, the National Trust for Local News sold 21 Colorado newspapers to an out-of-state chain as part of a retrenchment.
The Spokesman’s fundraising also coincides with donors being asked to support other media, especially since the federal government decided in July to revoke its funding of public broadcasters.
“The changes in the public media world mean there are more journalism outlets looking for community support than ever before,” said Ben Shors, chair of the journalism department at Washington State University and a former reporter at The Spokesman.
That’s forced WSU and Northwest Public Broadcasting to cut costs by $1.8 million. This month they’re shuttering KWSU-TV, a public broadcaster serving the Pullman and Spokane markets.
Overall philanthropic support for local news has grown, most notably through the $500 million Press Forward initiative by major foundations. But 98% of the $1.1 billion in journalism grants over the last five years went to urban areas, according to Medill research.
Curley is a “fantastic fundraiser,” Shors said, but “it’s a challenging environment right now for lots of different media outlets.”
Cowles said The Spokesman is also asking the community to support The Christmas Bureau, an annual program that raises around $500,000 a year to buy groceries and toys for families in need, but he’s confident it will still come through for the nonprofit newspaper.
“We’ve got some extremely enthusiastic lead donors and that’s fantastic,” he said. “And I have heard there are some donors who said listen, when it comes down to closing the gap come see me, because we’ll get it done. I think there’s a super high probability we’ll get to the finish line.”
La Conner partnership: Speaking of nonprofits, La Conner Community News and the Salish Current announced a partnership.
Kari Mar, publisher of the nonprofit newspaper in La Conner, will become executive director of the Current, a five-year-old, nonprofit, online publication serving Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties.
Mar said the newsrooms and ad teams will remain separate but she’ll work on strategy, sustainability and fundraising for both organizations.
Why not merge? Mar said La Conner needs a hyperlocal, printed newspaper and merging with a regional publication would “take away” that focus.
“To honor the mission of both and the intentions behind both organizations we felt it was better to maintain them completely separately but to combine them in terms of growing sustainability,” she said.
Mar said the La Conner paper, which launched in March, will end the year breaking even. It was helped by more than $12,000 donated Tuesday during an open house at its office.
This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress. Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley is the editor of the Free Press Initiative, which aims to inform the public about issues facing newspapers, local news coverage, and a free press. You can learn more about the Free Press Initiative, or sign up for a newsletter, at https://company.seattletimes.com/save-the-free-press/.
