Frank Blethen spent four decades leading The Seattle Times with a single goal: to keep the paper alive at any cost. To finance journalism, he sold nearly all of his family’s Seattle real estate, including the historic 1931 headquarters — an iconic Art Deco building in South Lake Union. After its 2020 sale the paper relocated, and the building was bought by a developer likely to repurpose it for offices or mixed use while preserving the facade. Having weathered economic downturns, the collapse of print advertising and protracted labor battles, he consistently put the paper’s survival above profit. In January 2025 he handed the publisher’s role to his son Ryan while remaining chairman of the board, and longtime executive Alan Fisco became CEO.
Today The Seattle Times remains the largest newspaper north of Los Angeles and west of Minneapolis, and one of the few still in local family ownership. The Blethen family bought the paper in 1896 when immigrant Aldo S. Blethen purchased it. For more than a century they built a reputation as the primary source for local news, investing in journalism despite industry crises. The paper has 108,000 paid digital subscribers and a weekday print circulation of 60,000. While many owners exited the business, the Blethens in contrast bought out a minority shareholder in 2024 to strengthen local control. Over the past 20 years they have sold a modern printing plant, valuable land and nearly all downtown commercial real estate to keep publishing the paper.
Seattle’s media landscape has changed dramatically in recent decades: the print Seattle Post-Intelligencer closed (2009), online outlets such as Crosscut and The Evergrey have grown, the alt-weekly The Stranger remains influential, and public radio stations KUOW and KNKX retain strong roles. In this competitive environment, where niche outlets vie for digital audiences, The Seattle Times faces declining print circulation but retains advantages in reporting depth and resources, remaining the region’s largest daily. Traditionally it has exerted significant influence on Washington state and Seattle politics, especially through editorials and investigations that shape public debates on transportation, education and housing, although its direct political clout has diminished somewhat in the digital era.
Frank’s personal history shaped his leadership style and views on equality. Raised by a single mother in Arizona after his parents’ divorce, he had little contact with his father, a former president of the paper. He credits his mother, Kathleen Ryan Blethen, as the inspiration for his emphasis on gender equality and opportunities for women in the company. Under his stewardship women held key roles, including the executive editor, though colleagues noted working with him could be difficult because of his mercurial personality.
Frank earned a reputation as an unyielding and unpredictable publisher. A former managing editor recalls a 1996 incident in which Blethen was accused of animal cruelty for allegedly firing an air rifle near a neighbor’s dog; charges were dropped after veterinary bills were paid. He also sparked controversy by running full-page political advertisements in the paper’s pages about elections the same newsroom was covering, forcing the then-executive editor to apologize to readers.
The most bitter conflict of his career was a 49-day employee strike in November 2000 over wages. That labor dispute reflected Seattle’s strong union traditions, historically tied to industries like aerospace and maritime, and highlighted tensions in the media industry during the digital transition. Blethen took the strike as a personal challenge, boarding up the headquarters’ windows and engaging in a hard-line confrontation. In a now-legendary email to the owner of the printing plant that was running the strikers’ paper, he wrote a blunt refusal and copied it to all publishers in the state. Resolving the crisis required the personal intervention of U.S. Senator Patty Murray — a powerful Democrat, Washington’s senior senator since 1993, known as a defender of workers’ interests. She brought the parties to her office and kept them there until they reached a deal, using her federal stature to underscore the seriousness of the dispute and its community impact.
Senator Murray, who has read The Seattle Times since childhood, notes that their relationship even survived the paper’s initial editorial...
Based on: Why Frank Blethen spent his family’s fortune to save Seattle’s newspaper