This newspaper is 100 years old today.
Now the Peninsula Daily News, it was born as the Port Angeles Evening News on Monday, April 10, 1916, one of a swarm of newspapers that proliferated in Clallam County during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
When A.A. Smith and E.B. Webster formed the daily, its first edition had eight pages, a circulation of a little more than 1,000 and cost 1 cent a copy, 5 cents a week or 20 cents a month.
That’s according to Olympic Leaders: The Life and Times of the Websters of Port Angeles, a book published in 2003 by Helen Neal Radke and Joan Ducceschi, wife of former publisher Frank Ducceschi.
The first front page included accounts of fighting between the French and Germans at Verdun, France, in World War I, the pursuit of Mexican bandit and revolutionary Pancho Villa by American cavalrymen in West Texas — along with local news.
Since then, the newspaper has covered such milestones as the establishment of Olympic National Park and a road built to Hurricane Ridge.
It has published stories about the rising and falling fortunes of the timber industry as well as the debates over protection of old growth forest and the creatures that live there and in the sea.
It covered the controversial legal Makah whale hunt in 1999 — and an illegal one in 2007 — as well as the discovery of the ancient village of Tse-whit-zen in 2003 and the subsequent loss of jobs from a graving yard that had been planned on the Port Angeles waterfront.
Most recently, it has published accounts of drought in a land where rain seems to fall for months at a time, and a dispute over what should be added to the water residents drink.
Throughout, the newspaper keeps readers up to date on local wrecks, power outages and what the police and courts are doing.
Once a Port Angeles product only, it now serves two counties, with a 156-mile circulation area from Hood Canal to La Push.
Paid print readership is 25,875 daily and 28,650 Sunday. We distribute an average of 273,910 paid circulation copies each month.
In March, the online version of the product, drew 906,436 page views and 160,478 unique users — with about 33 percent choosing to read the site on their mobile phones.
Digital age
“As the media landscape continues to change in the digital age, the reach and influence the PDN still maintains on the Olympic Peninsula comes with level of responsibility we don’t take lightly,” said publisher Terry Ward.
“Our readers have placed their trust in us for a century. We are dedicated to earning their trust as we move into the next 100 years.”
In addition to carrying news and advertising, the PDN contributes to community organizations in both counties.
One example is the Peninsula Home Fund. It was Ducceschi — who worked at the PDN for 25 years, beginning as managing editor in 1973 and retiring as publisher in 1998 — who saw a need for a community emergency fund and started the Home Fund in 1989 in concert with what was then called Jefferson-Clallam Community Action.
The annual fundraiser sponsored by the PDN to create a fund distributed by Olympic Community Action Programs was carried on by Brewer after Ducceschi retired and has since been taken over by Ward.
The newspaper also sponsors annual community service awards in both Clallam and Jefferson counties to highlight those volunteers who give their time and talents to others.
Although the aim of the newspaper to serve its readers has not changed, ownership has throughout the years.
Ownership changes
Smith retired in 1919, selling his interest to E.B. and Jessie Webster, as well as to Billy Welsh, who served as editor.
Jessie Webster headed the company after E.B’s death in 1936 until 1940, when the corporation presidency passed to their daughter, Beth, and then their son, Charles, who had joined the staff in 1934.
He served as head of the circulation department and the business office, becoming publisher in 1938 and editor in 1940.
His wife, Esther, joined the Evening News staff — and was known to complain about the boredom of covering board meetings.
The two became sole owners in 1961. As Charles’ health failed, Esther took over more and more of the management of the company. After his death in 1969, she ran it.
In 1971, she sold the newspaper to the Longview Publishing Co., and in 1972, the name was changed to The Daily News.
In 1986, Longview sold the newspaper to the Honolulu-based Persis Media Division. In 1987, the newspaper’s name was changed to the Peninsula Daily News, to reflect its switch from afternoon to morning publication and its circulation area.
In 1994, it became part of Horvitz Newspapers and four years later, under the direction of former publisher and editor John Brewer, it further emphasized its commitment to Peninsula-wide coverage with separate front pages for the Clallam and Jefferson county editions.
In 2011, Sound Publishing purchased the PDN, as well as the Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum weeklies.
The largest publisher of community newspapers in the state, Everett-based Sound Publishing is one of several locally operated divisions of Black Press Group Ltd. of Surrey, B.C., and Victoria, which have newspapers and websites in western Canada as well as from Hawaii to Ohio in the U.S.
Brewer retired as editor and publisher in 2015 after 18 years at the helm of the operation, and Ward took over as publisher of the three newspapers.
Throughout all the newspaper’s permutations, one thing hasn’t changed — its commitment to providing readers with the hometown news of each town on this fascinating strip of land between the mountains and the sea.
It’s been a great century.
Thank you.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
