© THE SEATTLE TIMES COMPANY

GETTING IT ROLLING

By sharpening our professional management skills, we will be financially successful. By choosing reasonable profitability based on cash flow, we will deliver better journalism and better community service. And by respecting employees and encouraging diversity, we will serve as a model for independent newspapers in particular and family-owned businesses in general.

The story of the 1990s is a continuation of a saga begun a full century ago, when Colonel Alden J. Blethen purchased a struggling newspaper and turned it into The Seattle Times. During the intervening decades, the company had many ups and downs yet always remained a premier source for news in the Northwest.

In 1985, leadership was turned over to the fourth generation of the Blethen family. Frank Blethen, Jr. became Publisher. H. Mason Sizemore, who began his career with The Seattle Times 20 years earlier as a copy editor, was named President.

Frank and Mason assembled a team of leaders who embraced the core values and began a step-by-step process that would change The Seattle Times and lead to a decade of accomplishments in the 1990s.

No "I" in the word "team." | The first change made was the creation of a new corporate culture, one that encompassed everyone in the company and gave all of us a sense of ownership. "Me" was replaced by "we." "We" refers to every person employed by The Seattle Times company, top to bottom.

Today, when we talk about our accomplishments, it is every one of us speaking.