by Mark Worth

Free Press co-founder

My favorite Free Press story is about a phone call that came into my house about six months ago. It went something like this:

"Hello," my housemate answered.

"Is this the Free Press?" the caller asked.

"Uh ... well ... yes it is ..."

"Why didn't you answer the phone, 'Free Press'?"

"Uh ..."

"I mean, isn't this like The New York Times or Washington Post or something?!" the caller angrily asked.

The guy actually got huffy with my housemate because of her un-receptionist-like behavior. He thought that a publication (in his mind) as good as the Free Press must come out of a glass tower somewhere downtown.

It just goes to show - it's amazing what you can accomplish with a Mac Classic, 4 megs of RAM, some creatively obtained software, a little too much spare time and way too much tequila.

That's about all I had when friends Alex Mayer, Amy Tullis, and I heaved up the first issue of the Free Press on March 17, 1993. Amy had no money to invest (pitch in). Alex had about $250. And I had about $300 that I borrowed (begged) from my much-better-off brother in Gaithersburg (the richest congressional district in the country), Maryland.

Nine issues and not-even-the-Seattle-recycling-office-knows-how-many empty bottles later, the Free Press has become somewhat of a staple in Iced Americano Land (named for my favorite espresso drink). We've been mentioned on various radio news shows and in local publications (even The Seattle Times!). The Seattle Weekly put us in their "What we'd like to see more of" list earlier this year. Heck, I even appeared on a KIRO talking-head radio show as a "local political expert." (When you see a pundit in the road, shoot him.)

I helped start this publication because of the lack of independent, challenging print journalism in Seattle. And because it seemed enough people were dissatisfied with their current options. Part of virtually every visit I made to local newsstands was spent asking browsers whether this town needed a more aggressive alternative to the Weekly. Many people just laughed - presumably at the sheepishness of the Weekly (which as of late has become more muckrakerish - superficially, at least.) And I wasn't hanging out at Revolutionary Books, mind you. We're talking about Elliott Bay types here.

At the time I finally decided to do a paper, I was living in an unfinished, unheated basement in a house in Wallingford. I made a "wall" with sheets that encircled my futon, leaving a 7 x 6 area with just enough room for the tiniest of space heaters. It was winter. Because it was too cold to actually do anything besides sleep in the basement, I wrote, edited and laid out the Free Press from the dining room upstairs. When a housemate said, "You can live here, but the Free Press can't," I moved out.

Nowadays, the Free Press is published, as I like to say, "out of bedrooms across the city of Seattle." There is no office. No financial backing. No separate phone line. No staff to cheerfully answer the phone, "Free Press - how may I direct your call?" We're a worker-owned collective of eight extremely-low-income people and a handful of volunteers. That's it.

Sure, lots of other local publications are produced from bedroom desktops. But I would dare say that none of them offer readers in-depth, to-the-point journalism. And when I say "journalism," I'm not talking about articles on "How to Get a Table at McLatte" or "Earrings: How Many Do I Need to be Cool?"

What drives the Free Press reminds me an awful lot of a guy named Lance Scott. Many folks know Lance as the founder and publisher of the Seattle Community Catalyst. After four years of producing articulate and well-informed progressive news and comment, Lance pulled the plug on the Catalyst a year ago May. In a moving farewell column, Lance said he had hoped for a stronger show of support from the local progressive community (whatever that is).

I suppose we were depending on that, too. Though unlike the Catalyst, the Free Press, while liberal-sounding, is not the voice of a political movement, per se. Organizations called Friends of the Truth or TruthFirst! don't exist. Conversely, non-political publications don't have nearly as much trouble surviving. They play to the market. Even The Stranger - Seattle's answer to Beavis & Butthead - knows full well what percent of its readers buy Doc Martens or get their nipples pierced. Businesses that cater to these "needs" advertise accordingly.

Unfortunately, there's no Truth Shoppe on Broadway or The Ave. It's tough to direct-market the facts. As for businesses that advertise in the Free Press and bought space in the Catalyst, it should be no secret that most - though not all - of them are owned by people of similar politically sympathies.

The upshot here is that publications like the Free Press and the Catalyst absolutely, positively cannot survive without the support of the people who read and appreciate progressively minded information and comment.

I don't want to have to write a column in the Free Press reiterating what Lance Scott said in the final issue of the Catalyst. Our collective isn't as big as it used to be, nor is the publication as thick as it once was. But our mission is clearer than ever. Our challenge is to tell it the way we see it. Your challenge is to help us live up to ours.

We're not to going tell you how much a $12 subscription to the Free Press will cost you per day. Think of this column, however, as one of those irritating though necessary fund-drive pitches on public radio stations.

"We'll get right back to the truth after we take a minute to tell you that we wouldn't be here if it weren't for you - the reader. You know how you've grown accustomed to picking up a Free Press 10 times a year at your local coffee shop or bookstore. Giving at the $12, $25 or $50 level is your way of making sure that we'll be back each and every ..."

In all seriousness, we're challenging you to back up your political and social beliefs by supporting the only publication in the entire city that gives a damn about them. Please cut out the subscription form at the bottom of the next page and send in whatever you can. For those of you who send in more than $12, we can't send you a Free Press sports squeeze-bottle or lovely tea-cozy. What we can give you is more of what you've enjoyed over the past year - only better

Oh ... if you call us, give the person answering the phone a break. We thank you.

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Contents on this page were published in the June/July, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1994 WFP Collective, Inc.