Issaquah/East Valley Papers To Cease Publication

From the editor:

To our valued readers and advertisers:

On February 24, 2017, the Issaquah Press Group will cease all operations.

We will publish our final editions of The Issaquah Press and the Sammamish Review on Thursday, February 23, 2017. We will publish our last edition of the Newcastle News on February 3, 2017 and our last edition of the SnoValley Star on February 24, 2017.

After serving our community since 1900, coming to this decision has not been easy.

Over the past 15 months, IPG employees in the newsroom, sales department and operations have all worked determinedly to realign our organization so that we could find an economically viable path forward.

Our newsroom reimagined how we covered our community, digging deep into stories such as the contamination of Issaquah’s aquifer. Their work led to volunteer subscriber growth during the first half of the year, as well as significant pageview growth on our websites.

Based on local advertiser input, our sales department introduced a number of new products for advertisers, including new digital tools and new events meant to help local businesses reach new customers. While we saw an uptick in revenue from local businesses, it wasn’t enough to offset losses from some major/national clients.