• by Ray Schultz , April 30, 2025

The Cowles family has donated The Spokesman-Review, a 131-year-old Spokane, Washington newspaper, to a nonprofit in the city.

The Comma Community Journalism Lab will now guide the newspaper, according to PBS.

In addition, the Cowles family is donating $2 million to move the publication to a subscription revenue model. This is contingent on the amount being matched by community donations. 

The move has drawn praise from journalistic observers. 

“The Cowles family chose what in my mind is community service rather than profit maximation,” says Benjamin Shors, chair of the department of journalism and media production at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, PBS reports. “It would have been snapped up in a heartbeat by a chain or hedge fund. That would have been problematic for local news in Eastern Washington.”