When the Tacoma Daily Ledger debuted on April 7, 1883, 17 of its 28 column inches were devoted to advertisements – including one by the Tacoma Land Co.
Today, 125 years later, the newspaper is still around – as The News Tribune – and the Tacoma Land Co. is still an advertiser.
Other ads in that debut issue were bought by well-known Puyallup pioneer Ezra Meeker, the St. Julien Saloon and druggist W.P. Bonney. That newspaper carried ads on the front page, including ones selling “city and country property, improved and unimproved” and “gents’ furnishing goods, haberdashery, trunks, valises, etc.”
It was a slight, four-page newspaper then, but within two years grew to eight – its growth reflecting that of the community it served.
A newspaper has a mission to inform, educate and enlighten. But it is, after all, a business, one whose fortunes rise and fall with others in the community. In good times, newspaper revenues swell as local businesses advertise their goods and seek employees. When the work force and population increase, there are homes to build and sell. In tough economic times, including today, struggling businesses may cut back on their advertising, and that affects the newspaper’s bottom line as well.
In the 1880s, Tacoma was growing by leaps and bounds, and it wasn’t always pretty. A young British journalist, Rudyard Kipling, visited in 1889 and wrote: “Tacoma was literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest.” He was all but overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells of a city rushing headlong into the future.
The newspaper in those days was an unabashed booster of anything that would improve the city’s fortunes – and thus the pocketbooks of its advertisers and readers. It championed the Northern Pacific Railroad line that connected Tacoma to points east in 1887. It welcomed the jobs provided by the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Co. (ancestor of Simpson Tacoma Kraft on the Tideflats) and the Tacoma Smelter.
Under the ownership of the Baker family, that boosterism got official sanction. The family, which already owned the Tacoma Tribune, acquired The News and The Ledger and merged them into The Tacoma News Tribune in 1918. Publisher Frank S. Baker noted that it was the paper’s policy “to promote the best interests of Tacoma and Southwest Washington.”
Today, the newspaper still recognizes the importance of business, but it takes a bigger-picture approach. For example, its editorials criticized the Tideflats pulp mill for producing the distinctive “Tacoma aroma” that discouraged other businesses from locating here. The mill’s owners took steps that have dramatically decreased the odor.
In recent years, under the McClatchy Co.’s ownership, the news pages have spotlighted such critical business issues as the potential loss of the Russell Investments. But the newspaper also publicizes the opening of a new doggie day care and other small businesses that are important to a thriving community.
One way the newspaper helps build business is by making it easier for advertisers to reach readers – and for readers to find the products and services they want. Independent research has found that half of all advertising-related shopping in Pierce County results from ads in The News Tribune. No other medium comes even close.
In recent years, finding better ways to connect businesses and customers has meant increasing the newspaper’s online ad presence. Vehicles such as cars.com and careerbuilder.com are among those new-technology tools.
The News Tribune recognizes that when customers buy from local businesses and keep sales taxes here, it pays off for the businesses, for the newspaper and for the greater community. That’s why helping build business will continue to be an important mission for the newspaper.
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