FORKS — Regional Publisher Terry Ward thanked the Forks community for saving the Forks Forum during an address to the Forks Chamber of Commerce.
Sound Publishing, Inc., like other businesses, was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and because of that, was no longer able to continue the Forks Forum as a free publication and suspended publication, Ward told chamber members on May 19.
But the community didn’t want to lose its weekly newspaper. Ward was deluged with calls urging the return of the paper. The West End community wanted its newspaper so badly that it came to support the Forum as a paid publication and the newspaper ended the year with no financial loss.
“People on the West End love the Forks Forum,” Ward said. “Their support has made the difference.”
The newspaper had never made a profit before last year. Historically, the Peninsula Daily News had subsidized the Forum by $62,000 a year.
When the pandemic hit, advertising revenues dried up and Sound Publishing had to make some hard decisions, said Ward, who is vice president of Sound Publishing along with overseeing the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum as publisher.
“When COVID hit, we didn’t know if we were even going to be able to put the Peninsula Daily News out,” he said last week.
Sound Publishing suspended about a dozen publications last March. Some have not returned.
Of the three that resumed publication, the Forks Forum has come back the fastest.
“That’s a success story that I like to tell,” Ward said.
“It’s a testament to the fact that, when a community gets behind a local newspaper, they can make sure that the community not only survives, but will thrive as the newspaper thrives.”
