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Splash greets 2016 with new owner
12/29/2015 9:52:46 AM
From Staff Reports
As The Splash voyages into a new year, a new crew will be at the helm.
WICK |
HOWARD |
Ben Wick has purchased The Splash and its sister publication, The Current, from Josh and Kim Johnson, owners of Peridot Publishing LLC. The first issue for Wick's new team, which includes his wife, Danica, as graphic artist and longtime Splash contributor Craig Howard as editor, will be the next one – the February 2016 edition.
"I am really excited to have the opportunity to be a part of the Liberty Lake Splash," Wick said. "I look forward to meeting and working more with the Liberty Lake community and am happy to say that The Splash is continuing on and will keep focusing on our local community."
Wick, a Spokane Valley native, just wrapped up four years on the Spokane Valley City Council. He is involved with a multitude of local boards and causes in between serving as information systems manager for Spokane Industries.
"I have really enjoyed being more involved with the community and working with all of the great people while serving on the Spokane Valley City Council," Wick said. "As my City Council term comes to an end, I still have a passion for our community and jumped at the opportunity to be a part of The Splash. Josh has done a great job with The Splash and The Current, and I look forward to putting in just as much passion."
Wick was similarly thrilled to tap into the talents and experience of Howard, a veteran community journalist who is among a small number of people who has maintained a steady presence at Liberty Lake City Council meetings since 2002. Howard originally covered the city in 2002 for the Spokane Valley News Herald, where he worked for a decade. In recent years, he has covered Liberty Lake as a contributor for The Splash.
"Craig has done a great job covering news and events in Liberty Lake," Wick said. "His knowledge, experience and creativity will be a great part of the new team moving forward."
From both the outside and the inside, Howard has admired The Splash's role serving Liberty Lake since its founding in 1999.
"Over the years, The Splash has established great brand recognition as well as reader and advertiser loyalty," Howard said. "I'm excited to continue covering the news of this area in a way that is unique, engaging and distinctly local. Community journalism in Liberty Lake is alive and well."
Howard added that Wick's lifelong love of the greater Spokane Valley area makes him a natural successor for both The Splash and The Current.
"Ben has his roots in this community and genuinely cares about his neighbors," he said. "I really believe he is a great match for both the Splash and Current. He wants to tell the stories that interest our readers while exploring new avenues that will contribute to the long-term success of both publications. This is a win-win for sure."
Howard noted he looks forward to continuing to work with longtime Splash contributors, including veteran journalists Mike Vlahovich and Treva Lind.
Founded in 1999, The Splash has been honored with numerous awards over the years for its journalism and design, as well as for its investment in the community. It was named the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce's small business of the year for 2013 and is a two-time Community Service award winner, an annual honor given by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.
The Splash has been owned by Peridot Publishing since March 2004, at that time purchased from founding owners Shaun and Nathan Brown. Josh Johnson has served as publisher since that time, adding the Liberty Lake Community Directory to the publishing mix in 2006. Two long-tenured Peridot Publishing employees, Graphics Editor Sarah Burk and General Manager Tammy Kimberley, are continuing on with the Peridot Publishing team as it shifts focus in 2016. Peridot's next publications will be distributed in April: the 2016 Liberty Lake Guide and its Spokane Valley counterpart. This will mark the 16th annual iteration of the Liberty Lake publication, which in previous years was referred to as the Community Directory. Plans for future special publications are in the works and will be announced later in 2016.
"While this move creates margin in our life for some new adventures ahead, Kim and I will always have a special place in our heart for The Splash," Johnson said. "The bittersweet nature of this transition is improved by the fact we leave the publication in great hands. Ben, Danica and Craig share our love for this community and our dedication to hands-on, local journalism. We will be cheering them on."
• • •
Breaking down the transition
New owner and publisher
Ben Wick
With a Spokane Valley family heritage that lands his family on the Washington State Pioneers list, Ben's connections in the community are both deep and wide. He served on the Spokane Valley City Council from 2012 through 2015 and has served on several local and regional boards, including most recently as chairman of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council. He is information systems manager for Spokane Industries and a summa cum laude graduate of Eastern Washington University in computer science.
His community involvement is wide-ranging, from serving as a member of the SNAP Financial Access board and as past chair of the Spokane County Fair & Expo Center's advisory board to memberships as diverse as Spokane Valley Kiwanis and the Inland Northwest Llama Ranchers. He lives in Spokane Valley with his wife, Danica, a graphic artist who will work on The Splash, and their two children. The family is kept company by an Australian Shepherd named Dundee and, yes, llamas.
He can be reached at ben@libertylakesplash.com.
New editor
Craig Howard
Craig has been covering Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley since 2002, many of those years as news editor for the Spokane Valley News Herald. He is also a longtime contributor to The Splash and The Current, and he has had stints as a reporter for three other community newspapers. He also is editor of the online Latter-day Sentinel and a contributor for Northwest Runner. He received his journalism degree from the University of Oregon in 1992.
Craig has worked in communications and development with SNAP since August 2012. He currently serves on the board and is a past president of the Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council. He is also a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Northwest and a member of the Greater Valley Support Network. He and his wife, Sarah, have two children.
He can be reached at craig@libertylakesplash.com.
What's happening to Peridot Publishing?
The core team isn't going anywhere and can still be found working away in their Liberty Lake Portal building offices. With its new focus on special publications, the team is working on the 2016 Liberty Lake Guide. Reach them at:
Peridot Publishing
23403 E. Mission Ave., Suite 102
Liberty Lake, WA 99019
509-999-4567
josh@peridot.info
(Josh Johnson, publisher)
tammy@peridot.info
(Tammy Kimberley, general manager)
sarah@peridot.info
(Sarah Burk, graphics editor)
• • •
A word of thanks
By Josh Johnson
Splash Staff Column
They say journalism is the first draft of history, and so I have been blessed with the opportunity to write and edit 12 years of rough copy about my hometown. It is hard for me to emphasize enough how much of a privilege this has been. I've experienced the joy of spotlighting the accomplishments of kids whose parents I once rode the school bus with. I've taken notes from the front row as our community has developed. I interviewed my grandparents when they were named grand marshals of the Fourth of July Parade, and in the years to follow I edited their obituaries, welling with both tears and pride.
Who gets to do a job like this? It has been a beautiful match: I'm truly passionate about our mission of "informing, connecting and inspiring communities," and this just happens to be the community where my grandparents spent decades living and working in local schools, where my parents raised my four siblings and me, where my heart remains.
As I close out my time as owner and publisher of The Splash, that heart is full. There are more thank-yous to share than space allows, so for the purposes of this column I will focus my gratitude on the people who I was blessed to work alongside.
First and foremost, the good Lord has given me a wife that shares my heart to live life on purpose. Kim is always up for an adventure, but her special skillset is in bringing meaning and richness to the journey. Without her, my schedule would be full. With her, my life is full. Publishing The Splash was a dream of mine, and Kim has encouraged and stood with me all along the way (and kept the books, and sold ads, and slept on the office couch as I sent that final page in the middle of the night …).
Tammy Kimberley and Sarah Burk joined the business about the same time (nearly eight years ago), and both are continuing on as our company transitions to new things. If you have liked anything you've seen in our pages during that time, chances are their fingerprints are all over it. There are people who have crazy talent and people who have crazy work ethic. These are usually not the same people. Exceptions: Sarah and Tammy. Peridot Publishing struck lightning twice. What's more, the pages of hundreds of past issues are filled with their hearts. They truly love this community and have poured themselves into never settling on a single aspect of The Splash. I admit it, Sarah and Tammy, your standards are even higher than mine.
My brother, Bo, was our first hire in 2004. He is the type of person who makes you sick because not only does he literally know how to do anything, but he is the only male in the family who doesn't appear to be balding. While his career has taken him elsewhere, he never left The Splash because he keeps answering his brother's phone calls.
The rest of the siblings all have clocked hours at the business as well. My sister, Bri Kirsch, did a masterful job with design and sales. Zak and Mike have delivered thousands and thousands of newspapers over the years, and Mike's charm paid dividends when he built the distribution list for The Current, as many businesses took a chance and opened their doors to a new publication.
I never paid my parents, Gary and Karen, but even if I did it wouldn't dent my indebtedness. They have lent unending encouragement, assistance and timely prayers to support us along the journey.
Evan Jensen, Hope Brumbach and Kelly Moore are top-notch journalists who taught me much while building a strong (and award-winning) reputation for our newspapers. Craig Howard, Chad Kimberley, Mike Vlahovich, Treva Lind, Valerie Putnam, Craig Swanson and so many others have shared their writing talents with us over the years. And a special thank you to the teams at the Liberty Lake Historical Society and Spokane Valley Heritage Museum, who have been responsible for one of our most popular standing features - the history page.
Janet Pier is a tireless professional who took such great care of our business partners for many years. Cindy Esch also deserves special mention for building new advertising avenues into Spokane Valley and truly inspiring our team as she battled - and beat - cancer.
Kelli Dexter was our office manager for many years, and she kept all of our systems rolling while sharing a wit, wisdom and camaraderie that truly built up our team.
I've been so blessed with great designers over the years, so a huge thank you to Jill Hacker, Tom Stover, Hannah Johnson and Karen Sutula for helping us nail the presentation time and again.
Bob Sullivan was one of Liberty Lake's unsung heroes. He passed away last year, but I was blessed by his example, his work ethic and his humor. He distributed papers for several years, and the last paycheck I wrote him was mailed shortly after his 80th birthday. Pamela Aguilar and Sandy Johnson were also exceptionally reliable and friendly shuttling newspapers all over the community. Our current distribution team of Mike Wiykovics, Dean Byrns and Stefanie Byrns have continued the tradition seamlessly. We are so blessed, and a special thank you to Mike for taking our statistical tracking of distribution to new heights.
I said I would focus this column on my coworkers, but that takes nothing away from my gratitude to this community - advertisers, readers, neighbors and friends. You have embraced, encouraged and supported us along the way. It has meant more than I could ever express.
The Splash is entering a new chapter in its history, and I am excited for Ben Wick and his team. Ben, this is a great gig.
Meanwhile, I'm not packing up my desk. Peridot Publishing is still in Suite 102 of the Liberty Lake Portal building, so come say hello. We have some projects in the hopper I am particularly excited about introducing to you later in 2016.
I will, however, be shifting my hours a bit, providing margin for Kim and I to pursue some other priorities and opportunities that are on the horizon. The page has turned, and new adventures await - time to get started on the next, first draft.
Josh Johnson is owner of Liberty Lake-based Peridot Publishing LLC. He can be reached at josh@peridot.info.
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