In the 16 months I’ve had the pleasure of being your community newspaper publisher, I’ve become close with readers in all four of the cities we serve: Enumclaw, Bonney Lake, Buckley and Sumner. I’ve spent an extra bit of time with the folks down in Sumner, our newest market among the four.
Sumner is a beautiful town, with a rich heritage and many charming, independent shops. My friends there, like former Councilman Leroy Goff, Sunset Chev’s Jerry Yoder, Green Mountain Coffee’s John Rader, City Attorney Brett Vinson, Diane Supler and countless other business owners and city employees, have made my visits there a pleasure.
So it is with mixed feelings that I announce that due to economic realities, The Courier-Herald must transition away from weekly publication for Sumner residents, to become a monthly special edition. The Courier-Herald will still be received weekly in our other communities – Enumclaw, Buckley, Black Diamond, Bonney Lake and every household around Lake Tapps.
The Sumner-edition Courier-Herald will still be appearing on doorsteps on the third Wednesday of every month. We will strive to continue to serve readers with the most accurate and insightful news possible and keep an active calendar of events on our website.
We chose this path after great deliberation, believing it to be the best way to provide the citizens of Sumner with a stable, ongoing commitment from their community newspaper. Representatives of The Courier-Herald, including myself, will still be seen in the community each and every week, involved with local organizations and interacting with news-makers and advertisers.
We felt comfortable with this new approach after seeing one of our sister newspapers attempt it and succeed last year. They found they were still able to provide a valuable service, within the context of a sustainable business model.
At the end of the day, that’s what we’re hoping for. As the economy improves, it is our hope that we too will find even better ways to connect with readers in Sumner and provide a valued forum for community news to the citizens of that fine city.
By Brennan Purtzer, publisher
