IN 1989, PULLMAN HERALD DIED OF 'OLD AGE'
It was more common in the
"old days," but even now and then you'll read an obituary which says a
person "died of old age."
The death of the Pullman
Herald weekly newspaper might be attributed to "old age," too.
It published its first issue
on Nov. 3, 1988. The Herald published
its last issue on Feb. 4, 1989. Some
sources say the Herald bit the dust in 1988. Wrong. The year was 1989.
Competition helped push the Herald
from being old (more than 100 years in existence) to defunct.
Said the Moscow Pullman Daily News," The
twice-weekly Pullman Herald folded in
February 1989, three months the 100th anniversary of its founding."
Competition came especially
from two entities, the Idahonian (daily newspaper of Moscow)/Palouse
Empire Daily News (daily newspaper of Pullman) -- today the newspapers
exist as one, the Moscow Pullman Daily News) -- led by publisher Jay Shelledy.
The other entity was the WSU Daily Evergreen student newspaper, part of WSU
Student Publications led by Don Ferrell.
And, in addition to
competition, cost cutting measures by the Herald's next to last owner --
the Coeur d'Alene-based Hagadone newspaper chain -- and its final owner
--Scripps League -- made it even weaker than it had been.
Rest in Peace Pullman Herald.
:::
Pullman
paper closes doors
By Julie Bailey and Lisa Cowan, WSU Evergreen, Feb. 6, 1989
The Pullman Herald published its final editions Friday afternoon, after corporate executives announced they were shutting down the 100-year-old community newspaper.
Executives from the Scripps League newspaper chain - with headquarters in Charlottesville, Va. arrived unannounced Friday afternoon, and told 20 part- and full-time staff members they were closing the semiweekly newspaper, said Pullman Herald Publisher Bob Lama.
"We had no advance warning that they were coming, they just decided with the board of directors that they would shut us down," Lama said. "We weren't a profit-making center."
Greg Stevens, a vice president for the Scripps League and executive with the Napa California Register, said in an article appearing in the Herald final edition, "declining advertising revenue" was the reason for the shutdown.
"Closing the Pullman Herald was a difficult decision, but one that had to be made in the face of economic realities," Stevens said in the article.
Lama said he is not sure what the Scripps League has planned for the future of the Pullman Herald.
However, Lama said he is not thwarted by the newspaper's closure, "I'd like to do all I can to resurrect the Pullman Herald," Lama said. I hate to see anything that's been around for 100 years close up."
The newspaper's most recent venture, the Campus Times, may not die along with the Pullman Herald, Lama said. However, he declined to discuss plans to continue the twice monthly campus publication.
WSU's communications department chair Alexis Tan said the newspaper's closure is "unfortunate," and the department will have to reassign 20 students who were writing for the newspaper as part of a reporting class.
"We will certainly try to place them with local papers and give them equivalent experience," Tan said.
Jay Shelledy, publisher and editor of the Daily News in Pullman and the Idahonian in Moscow, said the Daily News will try to absorb some of the journalism students.
"I'm meeting with the communications department this week to see if we can open a forum for the students to help fill the void (left by the Herald's closing)," he said.
The plans are not specific yet about how the program would operate, Shelledy said.
"It's far too preliminary for us to know yet," said Bob Hilliard, journalism instructor. The students affected by the paper closing are in Hilliard's reporting class.
"I've talked to Jay Shelledy. Their (the Daily News) first allegiance has to be to their paper and keeping it at a high quality," Hilliard said. "But I think we can work something out. "
The $35,000 donation the communications department receives annually from the Scripps League also may be in jeopardy, if the chain sells the Pullman Herald and has no further vested interest in Pullman.
"The Scripps League has given us their donation for this year, but I'm not certain of the implications for coming years," Tan said.
Shelledy said the Tribune Publishing Co., majority owner of the Daily News/Idahonian, the Lewiston Tribune and the Colfax Gazette, is not interested in buying the Herald. The Kearns-Tribune Publishing Co. out of Salt Lake City owns 80 percent of the Tribune Publishing Co.
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