EVERETT — The Herald has agreed to purchase the assets of the Everett Business Journal, and plans to close down the monthly publication after its May edition.
The purchase from Marysville’s Sun News Inc. is intended to strengthen The Herald’s monthly Snohomish County Business Journal.
"We’re committed to the business journal business, and we saw this as an opportunity to continue that success," Herald publisher Allen Funk said.
The purchase price was not disclosed by either party.
Both business journals were started in early 1998.
Sun News, which owns the Marysville Globe, the Arlington Times and other weekly newspapers in Idaho and Utah, purchased the Everett publication in 2001 along with business journals in Wenatchee and Bellingham. It will continue to operate the other journals.
Kris Passey of Sun News said one of the journal’s staff members had already given notice, one will be let go, another will be offered a position with Sun News and a fourth has declined an offer.
He said he sold the journal because there just wasn’t room for two such publications in the county. Both journals competed against the Puget Sound Business Journal, published in Seattle.
"It makes it really tough when there are two publications in a secondary market," Passey said. "You’re competing with other newspapers that exist and other publications. You just cut the pie one way too many.
"We competed as hard as we knew how," he added. "I think we had a good product."
The agreement calls for The Herald to purchase the Everett Business Journal name and its mailing, circulation and advertising lists. Funk said most of the subscribers already receive the county business journal. Those who don’t soon will, he added.
The Everett publication also belongs to a group of city business journals around the country that received advertising from national companies such as Xerox. The agreement calls for Sun News to help the Snohomish County Business Journal join that network.
Asked about why The Herald wasn’t continuing the Everett publication, Funk said it was "hard to say if there’s enough room in the market" for both.
"What the market showed us over time was our strategy (to go countywide) was the right one for Snohomish County and for Everett," he said.
Funk said The Herald has attempted to buy the Everett Business Journal in the past, but that the recent deal was initiated by Sun News.
He said that the competition between the publications "made both of us a lot better."
"We have no plans to back off or to reduce the quality of what we do," he said.
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