© THE SEATTLE TIMES COMPANY

PICKING UP SPEED

The Seattle Times, the largest private, family-owned and locally operated metropolitan newspaper in the U.S., is a winner of seven Pulitzer prizes and countless national and international awards. We understand that publishing a newspaper is a public trust. We accept the responsibility of our position to defend the defenseless, champion worthy causes and present information in unbiased ways. We know that our readers depend on us.

We're fortunate to be professionally managed, local and independent. We invest in news and editorial to a much greater degree than most metropolitan newspapers, which are part of chains and conglomerates owned by public companies with little or no connection to the community. Our overriding interest is in serving our community through quality journalism.

We live here. We work here. We're here to stay. Our lives are woven into the fabric of our communities. The Blethen family, which owns and runs The Seattle Times, has lived here for over a century.

To demonstrate how differently a private enterprise like ours runs a newspaper, look at our purchase of the Yakima Herald-Republic from a chain.

Our 1991 Yakima acquisition. | Publisher Chuck Cochrane tells the story. "There clearly had been little investment in the physical plant there for some time. The building was terribly run down. Buckets in the leaky conference room; a basement infested with spiders and full of mold. Employees were forced to work with army surplus furniture and ancient word processors. It was a mess.

"We tore the facility down to the studs and rebuilt it for efficiency, adding modern workplace furnishings and new computers. And when the Guild came to us to renegotiate the contract, we gave them more than they wanted. Of course, this also meant that we were raising the bar. We made it clear we had higher expectations for performance."

This was all unconventional. We have never heard of another newspaper acquisition in the 1990s where the new owners invested $15 million, raised salaries and lowered profits. But doing so made all the difference in Yakima. By investing energy and resources, we demonstrated our commitment to our core values and proved that they were something to cherish and preserve.

It's a cycle of success that builds on itself.