Cowles Company to donate The Spokesman-Review and $2M to Comma, after a community match of $2M

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to create a new model for journalism that will sustain the newspaper and serve as an example for other communities.”

Cowles President and Spokesman Publisher William “Stacey” Cowles

Cowles Company — the multi-generational owner of The Spokesman-Review newspaper — will explore turning the newspaper into a nonprofit that partners with local school districts, regional universities and other nonprofit-based news organizations to advance the cause of local journalism, the company announced today. 

Cowles signed an agreement with Spokane-based Comma Community Journalism Lab to transfer the assets of the newspaper and a gift of $2 million, contingent on Comma raising a $2 million match, according to Cowles President and Spokesman Publisher William “Stacey” Cowles. 

Comma was founded in 2022 by Rob Curley, executive editor of The Spokesman-Review, to incubate community-centered journalism, amplify diverse voices and share best practices with independent  news organizations nationwide, highlighting new ways that impactful local journalism can be sustainable.  Comma received its 501(c)(3) designation in September 2024.

Cowles said community ownership would set a path to greater community engagement that will enable the 132-year-old newspaper to remain integral to its hometown for another century.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to create a new model for journalism that will sustain the newspaper and serve as an example for other communities,” Cowles said. 

Comma has been based on Gonzaga University’s campus for the last year and has served as the home of The Black Lens newspaper and Northwest Passages, a book club and current events forum hosted by The Spokesman-Review’s newsroom and other community partners. The Black Lens is Eastern Washington’s monthly focused on the region’s BIPOC community. 

Spokesman-Review Editor Rob Curley shows off his “America Needs Journalists” shirt during a presentation launching the newspaper’s nonprofit Comma, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at the News Industry Mega-Conference being held in Orlando, Florida. (Photo credit: Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review)

Curley said the vision for collaborating with universities and school districts was a natural fit with The Spokesman-Review’s brand of community journalism.

He said he envisions Comma’s partnership with The Black Lens as a template that could be replicated to support other community news organizations that need help with training, editing, distribution and other publishing services.  For example, discussions are underway to help Spokane Schools bring student newspapers back to its high schools, following the success of The Spokesman-Review’s own high school internship program.  The pool of stories developed would be shared across the titles, greatly improving the depth and breadth of journalism available to the region.

Discussions also are underway with Gonzaga, Whitworth, Eastern Washington University and Spokane Colleges to create similar relationships that would span more than just students interested in journalism, also working with students with focuses as wide-ranging as business, graphic design, computer programming and education.

Curley said creating a hybrid of an operating newspaper with educational and community partners, as well as with philanthropic support on multiple levels, helps to make this a model that is different from other nonprofit-based newspapers across the country.

Philanthropic support will include outright gifts, corporate sponsorships and individual memberships. He said Comma had engaged The Bridgespan Group, a global nonprofit advisory firm incubated out of Bain & Company to pressure test the model and identify new opportunities.

Curley said philanthropic support has already played an important role by supporting part or all of six journalists at the newspaper including the newspaper's award-winning Washington, D.C., reporter Orion Donovan Smith.  Donovan Smith won a Feddy award last year for his coverage of life-threatening shortcomings with the Veterans Administration hospital electronic records system.  

For the past few years, the newspaper has worked with local foundations to help manage non-profit funding.

The dire economics of newspapers played a major role in the decision, according to Cowles.  “Big Tech has taken over retailing and retail advertising and aren’t yet forced to pay us for our headlines,” he said. 

“Newspapers are in a difficult transition with many older readers reluctant to give up print which has high fixed costs and many younger readers unwilling to pay for a digital subscription,” Cowles said.  “We know this transition will take investment and this non-profit model more than doubles the resources to put systems and products in place to bridge the gap.”

Cowles said a transfer could happen in three to 12 months depending on fundraising and establishing independent accounting, benefits and human resource functions for Comma.  Employees will have the same or better compensation and benefits.  “Our aim is to make this as seamless as possible for readers, advertisers and employees,” he said.

Cowles, a great grandson of The Spokesman-Review’s founder William H. Cowles, said family members were both excited and anxious over considering giving away the company’s flagship.  “But as stewards of this important community asset, we agree our first wish is to see the brand and the mission flourish for another century,” he said. 

Cowles Company is a diversified family holding company engaged in print and broadcast media, real estate, paper manufacturing, timber and venture investing in the Pacific Northwest.  The company was founded when W.H. Cowles consolidated ownership of The Spokesman and The Review and published the first merged edition May 19, 1893.