Ryan Blethen’s favorite classes at Washington State University were 20th century American history. Now Blethen produces the “first rough draft of history” as the recently named publisher of The Seattle Times.
Blethen is the fifth generation of his family to lead the newspaper since the family bought it in 1896. He’s doing things a little differently, though.
For one, he came from the news side of the operation. His father Frank Blethen, who published The Seattle Times for 40 years, had come up through the business side as many publishers do. Blethen is also the first Seattle Times publisher who’s a Coug, having graduated in general studies in 1996.
He chose WSU for the same reasons lots of other students do: the draw of a quintessential college town that’s “far enough away that I wasn’t going to get the parental drop-in,” he said, laughing. He added, “I thought it would be a good place for me to get away and grow as a person.”
After college he interned at the family-owned Yakima Herald-Republic. Then, wanting to get experience outside of the Blethen organization, he worked at The Spokesman-Review as weekend night cops reporter covering crime and mayhem. “I wanted a different experience and I loved it,” he said.
Blethen is the first Seattle Times publisher who’s a Coug, having graduated in general studies in 1996.
Back in Seattle, he landed in a new role, early-morning editor, putting together a morning email newsletter with a small team starting at 5:30 a.m. It was an experiment in new ways to deliver the news and it was a success.
The Seattle Times has long been recognized for its willingness to experiment, a mindset that Blethen credits to his father. More than a decade ago, for example, the newspaper launched the “Education Lab,” a grant-sponsored project to spotlight new approaches to challenges in education. Both the financial underwriting and structured outreach to communities and educators were innovative at the time.
“Coming off the heels of the 2008 financial crash, it was a real tough time for newspapers and a lot of other industries too,” Blethen said. His father got the idea to pursue sponsorship for public-service journalism, and Blethen said his reaction was, “You’re crazy, who’s going to give us money beyond a subscription?” But it worked, and The Seattle Times has now replicated that model with five other labs for coverage of transportation, climate, mental health, homelessness, and investigative journalism.
Ryan Blethen said there was some anxiety in the newsroom about this new financial model, but the newspaper made it clear to funders that there was no connection between sponsorship and coverage. “We’ve had to return people’s money before because they’ve disagreed,” he said. “We’re not afraid to do that if it’s the right thing to do.”
The Seattle Times has more than 105,000 digital subscribers and about 100,000 print subscribers, a level of success in this news age that Blethen attributes to the company’s targeted approach.
“It’s not rocket science. You need to have a decent sized newsroom that’s going to produce news people want to buy,” he said. At The Seattle Times, that means 170 newsroom employees who focus on popular topics like politics, investigative reporting, sports, and food. “We can’t write enough about restaurants and food, as evidenced by our three food writers,” Blethen said. The Times is also going to reopen its Washington, D.C., bureau to bolster political coverage.
The Seattle Times tries to cover news that drives subscriptions, not just page views. To do that, there has to be internal cohesion between the newsroom and product and marketing departments, an alignment that used to be frowned on.
“News has been really open to the feedback and learning from the product marketing folks about what works and what hasn’t,” Blethen said. He and Executive Editor Michele Matassa Flores “are really aligned on our vision for the newsroom and the paper. I think a huge part of our success is everybody pointing in the same direction.”
