The Everett Herald

The Daily Herald was first published on February 11, 1901, by S. A. Perkins and S. E. Wharton.[2] An earlier newspaper known as the Herald had been established in 1891 and ceased publication during the Panic of 1893.[3] The second incarnation of the Herald, originally named the Everett Independent, was sold to James B. Best in 1905.[4] The newspaper established a satellite news bureau for southern Snohomish County in May 1954, which later became the Western Sun edition in 1970.[5]

A three-alarm fire occurred February 13, 1956, at the paper's building on Colby and Wall Streets. The fire was caused by a backfiring furnace igniting a pan of oil. Despite the blaze, the paper published the next day by using the facilities of The Seattle Times and Local 23 Photo Engravers Union.[6]

The Herald moved its offices and printing presses to a building on California Street in 1959.[7]

The Best family owned the newspaper until selling it in 1978 to the Washington Post Company.[8][9]The purchase was part of the Post's strategy of acquiring smaller dailies near large cities, and then expanding into some of the big-city territory.[10] The strategy largely failed, and decades later The Herald "remained the awkward survivor of a discarded business strategy," Crosscut reporter David Brewster wrote in 2013.[10]

On April 5, 1981, the Herald published its first Sunday edition and folded the Western Sun edition into the countywide newspaper.[11]

The Herald was an afternoon paper[9] until switching to a morning paper[3] in 1991.[12] The newspaper also acquired a chain of weekly newspapers under The Enterprise in southern Snohomish County, which it operated from 1996 to 2012.[13]

The Daily Herald's website, HeraldNet.com, was launched on January 5, 1997.[8]

The Herald Business Journal launched in April 1998 as monthly magazine covering business and technology. A website for that publication launched in April 2001. The magazine's name was changed to Snohomish County Business Journal in August 2002.[14][15] The name changed back in 2012.[16]

The Journal launched the same month as a competitor, Everett Business Journal, owned by Sun News Inc., which also published The Bellingham Business Journal and The Wenatchee Business Journal. In April 2004, Everett Business Journal ceased publication and it's assets were acquired The Herald's publisher. At that time The Herald's business publication had a circulation of 16,000.[17]

The Herald laid off 10 employees on Aug. 19, 2008, due to the 2008 recession. About 15 empty positions company-wide would also not be filled anytime soon. No newsroom employees were laid off.[18]

In January 2013, The Herald announced six employees would be laid off, including four from the newsroom, due to ad revenue loses. Two vacancies would also not be filled, and one news reporter's hours were reduced.[19]

On February 6, 2013, the Washington Post Company announced it was selling the paper to the Sound Publishing division of Black Press, based in Victoria, British Columbia.[20] At the time of purchase, The Herald had a 46,000 daily circulation[10] and a 50,795 Sunday circulation while losing modest amounts of money in recent years.[21]

The newspaper then moved to Sound Publishing's offices on Colby Avenue in Everett.[7] The newspaper's printing plant near Paine Field was replaced in 2022 by a new Sound Publishing plant in Lakewood. The plant includes a press acquired from The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.[7]

On November 6, 2013, the paper announced it would launch a paywall on its website with a 15 article free limit. Afterward readers would be prompted to subscribe for $8.95 per month.[22]

Ten employees were laid off in February 2017, including four from the newsroom.[23] In April 2020, Sound Publishing laid off 20% of its workforce amid a decline in ad revenue resulting from the COVID-19 recession in the United States. Seventy workers across all departments lost their jobs, including more than a dozen employees who worked on The Herald. No news reporters were laid off, but newsroom employees had their hours reduced 20% to 40%.[24]

In March 2020, The Herald launched the Investigative Journalism Fund in cooperation with the Community Foundation of Snohomish County. As of September that year, the paper had received donations amounting $125,000 to help support investigative journalism. In September 2020, The Herald launched the Environmental and Climate Change Reporting Fund in the same vain.[25] The Health Reporting Initiative launched in October 2022 is funded in part for three years by Premera Blue Cross.[26]

On July 19, 2022, editorial staff members at the Herald announced their intention to unionize, citing poor wages and an inability to retain staff as key concerns they wished to address.[27] The Herald's newsroom employees voted unanimously on September 8 to unionize.[28]

On December 25, 2022, The Herald announced it would start using the U.S. Postal Service for same-day delivery. The paper also announced it would cease publishing a Sunday edition and that the Monday edition would be online only.[29]