Masthead from the front page of the first edition of the Woodinville Weekly, dated November 1, 1976. The incorporation of Woodinville and the historic Saginaw Sawmill were top stories.
Since 1976, when owner Carol Edwards first began putting out the paper in her garage, The Woodinville Weekly has been dedicated to bringing local news, issues and events to the community. As the area has grown, so too has the paper, from a circulation of 5,000 to approximately 30,000 today.
The Woodinville Weekly and its two sister publications, The Northlake News and The Valley View, serve the communities of Woodinville, Duvall, Carnation, Bothell, Kenmore and Lake Forest Park.
Carol Edwards started the Woodinville Weekly in her garage the spring of 1976. Edwards, a civic leader and vital force within the Woodinville community, published the paper through 2007 until her death, October 28, 2007, from ALS.
Edwards once commented on the papers’ beginnings, "My family, including six very small children, had moved to Woodinville in 1976. My parents lived here and I was returning to the Northwest from California. By fall of that year, I was desperate for information. What activities were there for kids, where was a library, what was going on in town and what was available in the way of services? As a former teacher, social worker, sheriff’s marshal and organic farmer, I had a lot of experience with hard work, information gathering and dissemination. I also had an AB Dick table-top press and an eight-foot process camera which I had bought on a whim a year earlier and hauled with me to Woodinville."
"I was committed to a free paper for people paid for by advertising. I packed up the kids and went to Woodinville stores and asked for ads to start the paper. My garage was converted to a production space and I borrowed a carbonribbon typewriter. ...Once the paper was set, I got a neighbor to help me shoot the negatives, make the plates and run the press. The small size of the paper was due to the size of the camera and press."
Staff became accustomed to working under difficult circumstances from these very humble beginnings. The operation moved several times to various locations throughout the years, currently occupying a 3,000 Square Foot space in downtown Woodinville near the post office.
The paper has gone from the low-tech operation of "cut and paste" to an all Digital system. In 1984, the Woodinville Weekly was the first news publication in Washington state to be on the Internet.
For more than 30 years, the dedicated staff has brought news and information to the surrounding areas, continuing Carol Edwards’ dedication and commitment to the community from her earliest vision. The Woodinville Weekly is currently a team effort with more than a dozen staff members.
Others from the community contribute to the paper in many ways, from guest columnists to photographers. Edwards reflected in 2001, "it was exhausting work for us all, but there was a commitment then, and now, to the importance of providing community news to residents ... we haven’t ever missed an issue!"
