Lean, Mean, and Lucky
Introducing a brand new alliance
Everybody needs a little luck sometimes, and we’ve had more than our fair share here recently at The Vancouver Voice. Your very own plucky upstart publication had the good fortune to catch the eye of a third-generation newspaperman a few weeks back, and somehow we’ve convinced this brave soul to join forces with us.
That’s right, we’ve partnered up!
Jeb Bladine has been working in newspapers since he took the reigns of editorship at the Milwaukie Review in 1971. He has been editor of the McMinnville News-Register since 1974, as well as publisher since 1991.
Our new partnership puts us in league with a number of excellent regional companies and publications operating under the umbrella of the News-Register Publishing Co.
The McMinnville News-Register has been owned and operated by the Bladine family continuously since 1928, and has been published tri-weekly since 1976.
The Oregon Wine Press was stared in 1984 by Portland area natives Richard Hopkins and Elaine Cohen, and has been a part of the NR group since 2006.
Oregon Lithoprint (the NR’s web printing division) is one of the region’s highest-quality web printing operations, and NR’s sister company, McMinnville Access Company (also known as OnlineNW), is Yamhill County’s largest Internet service provider.
The tangible results of our alliance will indeed be dramatic. Effective immediately, we will be increasing our circulation to 10,000 (an increase of 100 percent!), enabling us to reach a wider audience and achieve greater saturation at all of our existing distribution points. The talents of everyone laboring under the NR banner are at the ready to assist us as we strive to better serve Southwest Washington now and into the future.
The long-term prospects for our newly formed union are harder to project. A little bird told me there’s a fourth-generation newspaperman in the Bladine clan, and it may turn out that fairest Vancouver will tempt young Ossie Bladine to put down roots and carry the torch another few laps around the figurative track.
One thing is certain, however; we now have the muscle to find out once and for all just how badly this community wants a media presence that nurtures and supports its own unique cultural, political, and artistic identity, a media institution that seeks to represent the distinct character and personality of Southwest Washington.
The days of our bedraggled little band of earnest amateurs struggling mightily in the face of insurmountable odds are at an end. The odds have shifted in our favor, your favor, and the favor of the rest of our loyal readership and advertisers.
Only time will tell how this new relationship will take shape and develop. Our editorial vision is intact and secure, and our critical point of view is as staunchly independent as ever. There will doubtless be a long slog ahead as we labor together to establish ourselves in this community, but we’ve made it this far, and that’s something.
The birth pangs are finally over, and the promised growing pains still to come. It’s not “morning in America,” people, oh no. The time is noon. And with a little luck and a lot of hard work, The Vancouver Voice will continue to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing needs of this community for a long time to come.
PERFORMANCE