The Daily Herald

About The Daily Herald

The Daily Herald is a daily newspaper based in Everett, Washington, serving Snohomish County in the Seattle metropolitan area. Founded in 1901, it has been the leading news and information source for Snohomish County for more than a century, chronicling the region's evolution from a lumber and mill town into a diverse suburban county anchored by Boeing's massive Everett assembly plant, the largest building in the world by volume.

The paper is owned by Sound Publishing, Inc., and operates its digital platform at heraldnet.com. Its history includes ownership by the Washington Post Company, a landmark press-freedom court case, and a distinctive role in the Pacific Northwest's aerospace economy, making it one of the most consequential community newspapers in Washington state.

History

The Daily Herald was first published on February 11, 1901, founded by Sam A. Perkins and Samuel E. Wharton. An earlier Everett Herald had been published starting December 15, 1891, backed by John E. McManus and members of the Mitchell Land Company and edited by James N. Bradley, but it ceased publication during the Panic of 1893. The 1901 founding established the continuous lineage of today's paper.

For decades, the Herald was an afternoon paper, switching to morning publication in the modern era. The Best family owned the paper for much of the 20th century, a period that coincided with Everett's growth as an industrial city. In 1978, the Washington Post Company purchased the paper, bringing 35 years of ownership by one of America's most prestigious newspaper companies. On February 6, 2013, the Post Company sold the paper to Sound Publishing, the Everett-based division of Black Press of Victoria, British Columbia, returning the Herald to Pacific Northwest ownership.

Ownership

Sound Publishing, Inc. owns and operates The Daily Herald as the flagship of its family of community newspapers in Washington state. Sound Publishing is a division of Black Press, a Canadian newspaper company based in Victoria, British Columbia, giving the Herald cross-border ownership unusual among American dailies. The paper's publisher and president lead a local management team focused on Snohomish County.

The transition from Washington Post Company ownership to Sound Publishing marked a shift from national corporate ownership to regional community newspaper ownership. While the Post Company era brought prestige and resources, the Sound Publishing era has emphasized local autonomy and community focus, consistent with Black Press's portfolio of community papers across the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

Coverage Area

The Herald serves Everett and Snohomish County, a region of more than 800,000 residents stretching from Puget Sound to the Cascade Mountains. Its coverage area includes Everett, the county seat and largest city, along with fast-growing suburbs including Marysville, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mukilteo, and Arlington, as well as rural communities in the eastern part of the county.

The paper reported circulation of approximately 17,560 for its Tuesday-through-Saturday editions as of 2023. It publishes seven days a week in print and around the clock online, describing itself as the number one source of news, sports, and entertainment for Everett and Snohomish County. Its headquarters are located at 1800 41st Street in Everett.

Editorial Focus

The Herald's editorial focus centers on local news, with deep coverage of Snohomish County government, education, public safety, business, and the environment. Boeing is a signature beat: the aerospace giant's Everett plant, where the 747, 767, 777, and 787 Dreamliners have been assembled, is the economic heart of the county, and the paper's business reporters cover everything from contract negotiations to production decisions with authority.

Environmental coverage is another strength, reflecting Pacific Northwest priorities. The paper has sought reporters to cover sea-level rise, forest and tidelands preservation, climate-driven migration, and the restoration of endangered salmon and orcas, issues of profound importance to its readership. The paper also covers high school sports extensively, along with the region's arts and cultural life, and publishes editorials and opinion content.

Notable Coverage

The Herald played a direct role in one of the most consequential economic development stories in Washington history. In the mid-1960s, when Boeing was deciding where to build the 747, the company's short list included Everett, McChord Air Force Base, and Walnut Creek, California. The Herald's owner and publisher at the time, Robert Best, who also headed the commission overseeing the county-owned Paine Field airport, joined airport director George Petrie in pitching Everett to Boeing president Bill Allen. Boeing chose Everett, and the resulting plant, built on 700 optioned acres of cleared forest, has employed tens of thousands and shaped the county's destiny ever since.

The paper's journalism has also made legal history. In 1979, the Herald published articles on the cult activities of Theodore Rinaldo, who was later convicted of rape, indecent liberties, and assault. When Rinaldo's defense sought access to the reporters' confidential material, the paper fought the subpoena, losing in the state Court of Appeals in 1983 in a decision The New York Times called a major defeat for the news media. The Herald appealed to the Washington Supreme Court, which in State v. Rinaldo in 1984 quashed the subpoena while upholding the lower court's legal framework, a nuanced outcome that remains a significant precedent in Washington media law.

Digital Presence

The paper's website, HeraldNet.com, was launched on January 5, 1997, making it one of the earlier newspaper websites in the Pacific Northwest. The site publishes news continuously, with digital subscribers receiving full access behind a paywall, and the paper distributes content through email newsletters, mobile apps, and social media channels.

The paper's digital operations include alternative storytelling formats, photo and video journalism, and subscriber email newsletters. As part of Sound Publishing, the Herald shares digital infrastructure with sister community papers while maintaining its distinct Everett and Snohomish County identity online.

Community Role

For 125 years, the Herald has been Snohomish County's paper of record, documenting everything from the lumber era through the Boeing boom to the tech-driven growth of the 21st century. Its archives, comprising more than 1.3 million searchable pages from 1901 to the present, constitute an unparalleled record of the county's history, treasured by genealogists, historians, and longtime residents.

The paper's community role extends to candidate forums, voter education, and partnerships with civic organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County. Its high school sports coverage is a county institution, and its reporting on local government provides the accountability journalism that residents of one of Washington's fastest-growing counties rely on.

Awards and Recognition

The Herald's journalism has earned recognition from Washington journalism organizations over its long history, and its reporters have been honored for coverage of the aerospace industry, the environment, and local government. The paper's institutional reputation rests less on national prizes than on its sustained, authoritative coverage of Snohomish County across more than a century.

The paper's role in Washington media law, through the Rinaldo case, gives it a distinctive place in journalism history, studied in media law courses as an important precedent on reporter's privilege. Its early adoption of digital publishing in 1997 also marked it as a forward-looking community paper.

Challenges

The Herald faces the industry-wide challenges of declining print circulation and advertising revenue, competition from The Seattle Times and digital outlets, and the difficulty of covering a large, fast-growing county with constrained resources. The Seattle metropolitan media market is among the most competitive in the country, and the Herald must differentiate its Snohomish County focus from Seattle-centric coverage.

Covering Boeing, a global corporation with sophisticated public relations, requires experienced business journalists who are expensive to employ and retain. The paper's environmental ambitions, from climate change to orca recovery, demand specialized reporting capacity. Balancing these demands with the economics of a community newspaper under private ownership is the paper's ongoing challenge.

Future Outlook

The Daily Herald enters its 125th year as a rare success story of sorts: a community newspaper under stable regional ownership, maintaining daily print publication and a robust digital presence in a growing market. Sound Publishing's community-newspaper model, focused on local autonomy rather than national scale, offers a plausible path forward that many chain-owned papers lack.

Snohomish County's continued growth, driven by aerospace, technology, and its position in the Seattle metropolitan area, ensures a large and engaged potential audience. The Herald's deep archives, its Boeing expertise, and its century-long relationship with the community are durable assets. Its future will depend on converting those assets into a sustainable digital subscription business while preserving the local journalism that has defined it since 1901.