North Kitsap Herald
North Kitsap Herald is a newspaper based in the city of Poulsbo in the U.S. state of Washington; it publishes in print every Friday. The publication is owned by Sound Publishing Inc. which is a subsidiary of Black Press. The newspaper was founded in 1901 by Peter Iverson, which at that time was known as the "Kitsap County Herald." It was called this until the name was changed to "North Kitsap Herald" in 1995. According to "Sound Publishing", the "North Kitsap Herald" has won 20 awards from both the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association and Local Media Association , of which eight were first place awards. In March 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Kitsap Herald issued a statement that it would be halting Friday print editions of the publication for an unknown amount of time, and directed audiences to read the digital newspaper "Kitsap Daily News," which is owned by "Kitsap News Group", a division of "Sound Publishing". In 1962, the "Kitsap County" "Herald", then owned by former "Albany Democrat-Herald" editor, was purchased by David Averill and his wife Vera Averill along with the "Bainbridge Island Review." They purchased the newspapers from Walter  Woodward and his wife Milly Woodward. The couple successfully ran the "Bainbridge Island Review" and "Kitsap County Herald" together as a family, all while raising their four children together. The newspaper's former owner Walter was to remain editor of the "Review", consolidating control of the county's news field. The "News" was to be discontinued before that. Woodward had owned the two papers for 22 years. Verda Averill eventually sold the "Herald," the "Review", and the "Kitsap Advertiser" to the Black Press in 1988; at the time, "Black Press" owned seven U.S. papers and 24 Canadian papers. Founded in  1987, "Sound Publishing Inc." is a subsidiary of "Black Press with a "digital first philosophy""". They" call themselves "the largest community news organization in Washington State" serving over one hundred Washington communities, 2.3 million digital readers and circulating in print to 661,072 readers. The organization's history began in 1987 when Wallie Valentine Funk started the "Whidbey Press Newspaper Group" after acquiring three publications including the "Whidbey News-Times" founded in 1890, the South Whidbey Record and the Naval Air Station Whidbey Crosswind weekly. Then in 1988, Whidbey Press relocated to Kitsap County after acquiring "the Port Orchard Independent." The  organization went on to soon acquire the "Bainbridge Island Review", the "Central Kitsap Reporter" and the "North Kitsap Herald as well". In 1994 the organization renamed itself "Sound Publishing" which was a nod to their first community newspaper acquisition in the San Juan Islands area, The Islands’ Sounder.