Advance Notice

The story of Northwest Prime Time is a story of changes. I have another change to announce, but first, a brief history of this particular senior publication. 

1991-1997: According to lore, it all began in 1991 when Neil and Jenny Strother bought Prime Time from the original owners, who started the publication as a travel and cruise newspaper. But Neil, with his graduate degree in journalism from Northwestern and years of experience as an editor and producer for KING TV, had the idea to focus on a general interest monthly newspaper for seniors. Three years later, he hired Chris Mitchell (co-owner of the current Northwest Prime Time) as one of the advertising sales staff. 

Neil and Jenny Strother, former owners of "Northwest Prime Time," who first gave Chris his job with the paper. Neil sent this photo from a few years back when he and his wife Jenny were hiking in Patagonia. "Jenny is the beautiful person on the right," he says.

1997-1999: In 1997, Neil sold Northwest Prime Time to Get Up & Go, a company that bought up senior papers all across the country. But, as readers back then were fond of saying with a tut-tut and knowing chuckle, "Get Up & Go got up and went!" The company had expanded too quickly and senior newspapers across the nation closed en-masse. Since Chris's employment had switched from Northwest Prime Time to Get Up & Go, he was suddenly out of a job. Back home, he and I -- despite having no experience or much in the way of monetary resources to call our own -- decided to try our hand at filling the void in the local senior newspaper landscape. 

1999-2000: In November 1999, 25 years ago this month, we began our quest to publish the new Northwest Prime Time. We found a financial backer and our first senior newspaper appeared hot off the presses in March 2000. Soon enough, we transitioned from being mere publishers to becoming publishers AND owners when the backers gracefully bowed out (I seem to recall the phrase "bleeding money"). 

Our first-ever newspaper, printed in March 2000, featured this cover photo. It is a stock photo from a disk we purchased, but his smiling face had women of a certain age calling us to ask, "Who is that cover boy? Is he single?"

 

2000-2008: Merrily we rolled along until 2008. Northwest Prime Time was going gangbusters; it funded the purchase of a dream home and saw success beyond our modest aspirations. But the rigors of publishing -- which included research, writing, editing, layout and production, delivering papers throughout the region, mailing subscriptions, paying bills and running a business, coordinating with printers, distributors, independent contractors, contributing writers and especially unforgiving deadlines that meant pulling all-nighters -- was proving to be incompatible with having a sane life. So, the main change of note was moving from a monthly schedule to publishing 10 times per year -- mainly so I could carve out a little time away from work. Man oh man, after so many years, that first taste of freedom from the grind was savored at a stone cabin amongst the trees on Samish Island overlooking the sparking bay and listening to the calls of songbirds, great blue herons and soaring eagles. It was glorious

The Stone Cottage on Samish Island

 

2008-2019: The Great Recession, the rise of the digital world, and the dawn of the Pandemic saw us trying this tactic and that tactic to stay in business. We were able to hang on despite famous local publications becoming all-digital or going out of business altogether. We attribute our ability to stay in business to the fact that we were so small and able to remain flexible, plus Chris got a weekend job.

2019-2022: In 2019, struggling against the Pandemic and the digital forces that were causing untold newspapers across the world to shut down, Northwest Prime Time changed to a six-times-per-year schedule. That move bought us some time, and we continued to roll along in print until Spring 2022 when our last hurrah featured Knute "The Mossback" Berger on the cover. (By the way, Mossback was a fun and fascinating person to interview - here is the link to the article: At Large with Knute “Mossback” Berger.) In 2022, The New York Times ran a feature that read: "Over 360 newspapers in the United States have gone out of business since just before the start of the pandemic."

Knute Berger, courtesy CascadePBS (formerly Crosscut)

 2022-2024: Enter the brave new world of becoming an online-only senior publication. Now THAT change required quite the learning curve, reminiscent of those first heady days back in 2000 when we took on the task of becoming inexperienced publishers. For a while, we continued to format and publish a downloadable copy that was easily printed at home or for free at the library, so that those who wanted to feel the paper in their hands still had that opportunity. After a few months, though, we realized that the vast majority of readers were reading the articles online rather than going to our "printable" publication. We then become truly online-only. 

2025 and into the great unknown:

Rather amazingly, we're still in business, but 2025 -- marking a quarter of a century since we began -- will see another change. In a preemptory move to preserve the thousands upon thousands of articles in our archives, we are opting to switch over to a new website-hosting platform. The change is proving complicated and has a lot of unknowns, but we do know it will mean a bit of a new look and a bit of new functionality. 

And so the adventure continues... stay tuned for January 2025 when this blog will provide another update for you.

In the meantime, next month, The True-Life Adventures of a Senior Newspaper Publisher blog will explore what so many have been through, including me... moving into a caregiving role, hospice, and final arrangements that took three years to fulfill. However, the post will also celebrate what would have been my parents' 80th wedding anniversary and another look at their remarkably long life together. The happy couple was featured on the cover of our December 2019 edition to honor their 75th anniversary in an article entitled Happy Diamond Jubilee. 

Until then, may the holiday season have you giving thanks and counting your blessings.