Richard Meeker | AAN.org

Willamette Week Publisher: We're Enjoying Great Healthnew

In his annual report to readers, Richard Meeker says that despite "the gloom-and-doom reports" on newspapers across the country, Willamette Week's story in 2007 "is anything but a tale from the crypt." He notes that "this will be the paper's best year ever in display sales," with sales up 7.6 percent over 2006. And although classifieds continue to decline, with sales down about $115,000, total revenue at the paper is expected to be up 4 or 5 percent from last year, with pre-tax profit expected to be about 5 percent. "If [the paper was] owned by a media conglomerate, co-owner Mark Zusman and I would have been relieved of our responsibilities long ago for unsatisfactory financial performance," Meeker writes. "While we certainly could be a little more efficient, we feel it would seriously harm the culture of our operation to try to match national averages calling for profits two to three times greater than ours."

Willamette Week | 11-15-2007 9:08 am | Industry News

Tags: Circulation, Classified Advertising, Editorial, Electronic Publishing, Financial, Management, Marketing, Retail Advertising, Willamette Week, Richard Meeker

Erstwhile AANies Elected Mayor in Minneapolis and Raleigh

The path between journalism and politics is well worn, and now two pols with alt-press connections have taken over City Halls. R.T. Rybak, erstwhile publisher of the defunct Twin Cities Reader, was elected mayor of Minneapolis, and Charles Meeker, brother of Willamette Week publisher Richard Meeker and a former Independent Weekly shareholder, seized the reins in Raleigh, N.C. Not since former Pacific Sun reporter Barbara Boxer was elected to the U.S. Senate have AANies made such political hay. (FULL STORY)

AAN Staff | 11-26-2001 4:30 pm | Industry News

Tags: Independent Weekly (NC), Willamette Week, Twin Cities Reader, Richard Meeker

Bingo Barnes Buys Boise Weekly

Husband-and-wife team Bingo and Sally Barnes are the new owner/operators of Boise Weekly. The sale by City of Roses Newspaper Company was official on August 1 and formally inked on August 2. Present and former owners all agree the paper needs the kind of local stewardship the Barnes say they’ll provide.
• Read the Idaho Statesman's story on the sale.
(FULL STORY)

John Ferri | 08-07-2001 11:52 am | Industry News

Tags: Financial, Management, Boise Weekly, City of Roses Newspapers, Richard Meeker, Sara Kuhl, Dave Goff

City of Roses Puts Boise Weekly on the Block

Less than 18 months after acquiring Boise Weekly and shepherding the paper through a significant redesign, City of Roses Newspaper Co. announced early this week that the nine-year-old publication is once again on the trading block. (FULL STORY)

John Ferri | 05-18-2001 11:49 am | Industry News

Tags: Financial, Management, Boise Weekly, Richard Meeker, Russ Martineau