Willamette Week, Portland, Ore.

By: Graham Webster The Willamette Week investigation that rocked a former governor gained much attention when it was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism. But the intensive reporting behind that story is only one stop on a long trail of high-impact stories produced by this spunky alt-weekly.

When Editor Mark Zusman bought the Week in 1982 with his partner, Publisher Richard Meeker, the paper already had a philosophy of traditional, solid journalism. Both Zusman and Meeker had worked on the news side, where the paper's "DNA," as Zusman calls it, makes it predisposed to good old-fashioned newspapering.

"We've actually got a fairly traditional approach to news," Zusman says, "which is, we want to break news, we want to be fearless, we want to be independent." He says some alt-weeklies lean towards entertainment or tend to be more feature-oriented: "With no disrespect to other alternative newsweeklies, it's just a different orientation."

For years, the Week has been attracting committed reporters who hear of the paper's investigative spirit. Previous stories have included one exposing a local elementary school that was "basically poisonous," Zusman says. The day after it ran, the school was closed.

In another story, a local police officer had been arrested and charged with possession of cocaine after her garbage had been seized and cataloged. "The issue was whether or not they had the right to take the garbage without a search warrant," Zusman says. So the paper sent out two reporters one night and took the garbage from the homes of the district attorney, the mayor, and the police chief ? and published a list of the contents. "It was, in my mind, a wonderful blend of a story that's highbrow and lowbrow," Zusman says, adding that the mayor was not amused.

Now, after the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation that brought to light former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt's alleged sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, Zusman is getting more job applications.

What's more, he says he's heard that former employees of the weekly have been updating their resumes to brag that they worked for a Pulitzer winner ? whether or not they were on staff during the Goldschmidt probe.

For all of the big stories and the culture of investigation at the Week, Zusman gives as much credit to the paper's readers. "We're blessed to publish a newspaper in Portland, Oregon," he says, noting that it is a city of people who care about their community. "More than any brilliance on our part, we're operating in a good city." -- Graham Webster