"Pressing On" traces the history of two exceptional family-owned newspapers, The Seattle Times and The Wenatchee World.
Frank and Ryan Blethen, left, and Rufus and Wilfred Woods
Owned and managed by the Blethen family since 1896, The Times’ track record of public-service journalism places it in the first-rank of American newspapers: nine Pulitzer Prizes, including the breaking-news award in 2010 for coverage of the Lakewood police officer shootings.
The Woods family has owned and managed the Wenatchee paper since 1907. Its front-page slogan is a classic: “Published in the Apple Capital of the World and the Buckle of the Power Belt of the Great Northwest.” Rufus Woods, the legendary grandfather of the present publisher, led the push to create the Grand Coulee Dam. Few daily newspapers of any size can match The World for its sense of community.
With full-color printing, Websites and intuitive smartphone and tablet apps, The Times and The World are reinventing themselves to stay relevant in the Internet age. Their readers have access to high-quality journalism that provides context—from salmon survival to the plight of circus elephants, plus breaking news about landslides, wildfires, high-school sports and the Seattle Seahawks.
Kings of The World
“Kings of the World” is a collaboration between Legacy Washington and Simon Fox, a multi-media journalist who graduated from the University of Washington in 2015. Narrated by Legacy Washington’s John Hughes, this important documentary focuses on the heirs of one of the last remaining family-owned newspapers in the country, The Wenatchee World. Ninety-six-year-old Wilfred Woods and his son Rufus publish a newspaper that is steeped in a century of public service journalism. The first Rufus Woods, Wilfred’s father, played a key role in the creation of Grand Coulee Dam.