# Journal of the San Juan Islands

The Journal of the San Juan Islands is a newspaper based in Friday Harbor, Washington. The Journal publishes on Wednesdays. It also publishes SanJuanJournal.com; Springtide, an annual magazine for visitors; The Book of the San Juan Islands, an annual almanac; and special sections related to aspects of island life.
The Journal was adjudged a legal newspaper for the publication of any and all legal notices on May 6, 1941, by the San Juan County Superior Court.
As of 2013, the economy of the San Juans is almost entirely driven by tourism, which has been described as a "thin base for newspaper endeavors."

## History

The Journal was founded by Oscar G. Wall, with the first issue publishing on Sept. 13, 1906. Wall relocated to Friday Harbor from Lanesboro, Minnesota, where he had published a newspaper and, from 1878 to 1885, served on the village council.
Originally named the Friday Harbor Journal, Wall launched the newspaper with a stated ambition of helping the thinly populated San Juan archipelago to improve beyond a largely farming- and fishing-based economy. The motto of The Journal in its early days was, "A Square Deal for Everybody."
The Journal was bought in 1907 by its editor, Virgil Frits (1882-1971), who owned, edited and published it until 1958 (Wall died in Friday Harbor on Aug. 16, 1911 at the age of 67). Frits was also a longtime town clerk of Friday Harbor. The Journal's competitor, the San Juan Islander, folded in 1914.
During Frits' ownership, The Journal was located in the building next to the San Juan County Bank building, which is now the home of Coldwell Banker. The Journal's historic home is now a retail shop. The Journal's archives were donated in 2002 to the San Juan Historical Museum. The present title was adopted in 1981. On October 2, 1998, The Journal launched its online news site, SanJuanJournal.com, which gradually expanded to daily news coverage. For much of the first decade of the 2000s, SanJuanJournal.com had more unique visitors than any other online news site in the San Juan Islands.
In 2000, The Journal — which was locally published and locally managed — was a pawn in a fraud involving its owner. At that time, The Journal was part of Lower Mainland Publishing Co., a subsidiary of Hollinger International, which Conrad Black and his associate David Radler controlled. Black and Radler arranged for Hollinger to sell The Journal and the Skagit Valley Argus, on May 1, 2000, to Horizon Publications, a company which they secretly owned, for the sum of $1. Horizon sold The Journal the following year to Black Press (an unrelated firm) for $280,000. The directors of Hollinger were not informed of a previous third-party offer of $750,000 for The Journal alone.
Since September 2001, the Journal has been owned by Sound Publishing, Inc., a division of Black Press and the largest community newspaper publisher in Washington. A competitor, the San Juan Islander, launched as a news website in 2000 and adopted the name of a late 19th century/early 20th century newspaper. The online news site was founded by two former Journal employees, Sharon Kivisto and Matt Pranger.
In 2014, The Journal won 17 awards in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest.

## Notable columnists

* Virgil and Maude Frits, "Friday Harbor in a Nutshell": a column about local happenings, and comings and goings.
* Tony Surina, "A Look Back — From the Pages of The Journal": news items from 50 and 90 years earlier, culled from The Journal's archived editions.
* Howard Schonberger, "Ferry Home Companion": local slice-of-life column.

## Extra editions

During the 2000s, The Journal — which is normally printed on the mainland — produced several extra editions that were printed as its office and distributed for free. Several election-night extras were produced, along with extras for major events such as a downtown Friday Harbor fire on May 9, 2002. The Journal also produced The Daily Fair, a free, four-page newspaper, during the San Juan County Fair; The Journal's booth at the fairgrounds served as a news bureau during the countywide fair.

## Books by former Journal employees

* "Gunkholing in the Gulf Islands," by Jo Bailey, co-author (1986, Robert Hale & Co.).
* "Gunkholing in Desolation Sound and Princess Louisa," by Jo Bailey, co-author (1989, Robert Hale & Co.).
* "Gunkholing in South Puget Sound," by Jo Bailey, co-author (1997, San Juan Enterprises).
* "Gunkholing in the San Juan Islands," by Jo Bailey, co-author (2000, San Juan Enterprises).
* "Mahini Tiare, Pacific Passages," by Barbara Marrett, co-author (1993, Pacific International Publishing).
* "Roche Harbor," by Richard Walker (2009, Arcadia Publishing).
* "The Journey Home," by Richard Walker (2012, Red Bird Chapbooks).
* "Indian Country Stylebook for Editors, Writers and Journalists," by Richard Walker, co-author (2016, Kitsap Publishing).
* "Paxton the Sheepdog Who Couldn't ...", by Jane K. Fox (2017, Waterstones).
* "Point No Point," by Richard Walker (2019, Arcadia Publishing).
* "Frybread Dreams & Other Poems," by Richard Arlin Walker (2020, Deer Dancer Press).
* "Return to Saigon: A Memoir," by Larry Duthie (2020, Kindle Direct Publishing).