What The Olympian does

The Olympian is a daily regional newspaper serving Olympia, Washington, and Thurston County. Founded in 1889, it is owned by McClatchy Company and publishes local news, sports, and community coverage across multiple channels including a print edition, a dedicated website, mobile applications, and an e-edition. The publication also distributes content through specialized email newsletters and vertical sections such as a Money Section and Product Reviews, alongside engagement features like a Games & Puzzles product.

The business model combines reader revenue and advertising revenue. Reader revenue is generated through digital and print subscriptions, with the digital subscription priced at a promotional 99 cents per year as an acquisition lever. Advertising revenue is sourced from traditional display and classified advertising as well as from sponsored content delivered through a partnership with BrandPoint, with obituaries operated via a partnership with Legacy.com. Distribution and back-office functions are scaled through McClatchy's broader network of 30+ publications.

Operationally, The Olympian is structured as a single-market local news property within a multi-publication corporate parent, with no evidence of AI-driven product features, proprietary technology stack disclosures, or differentiated technology assets beyond standard CMS, mobile, and email-publishing tooling. Its strategic posture is best characterized as defensive digitization: adding owned-audience channels (newsletters, mobile, e-edition) and alternative monetization formats (native ads, puzzles, vertical sections) to offset the structural decline of print advertising and circulation in U.S. regional newspapers.

Name

The Olympian

Legal name

The Olympian

Website

https://theolympian.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1889

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Olympian is a daily regional newspaper founded in 1889 serving Olympia, WA and Thurston County, owned by McClatchy. It distributes local news across print, web, mobile apps, and e-edition, monetizing through subscriptions, advertising, newsletters, and sponsored content partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Olympia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Digital Subscriptions: Recurring subscription revenue from digital access to website content, e-edition, and mobile apps. Subscribers pay monthly or annual fees for unlimited access to online news content.
2. Print Subscriptions: Home delivery of physical newspaper, offered as a standalone product or bundled with digital access.
3. Advertising Revenue: Display advertising, classified ads, and obituaries published across digital and print platforms. Includes advertising options for local businesses, job postings, celebration notices, and political advocacy advertising.
4. Sponsored Content: Paid content partnerships including BrandPoint sponsored articles and family features.
5. Classified Advertising: Classified ad placement including job postings, marketplace listings, legal notices, and celebration ads.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Olympian is a regional daily newspaper that publishes hyperlocal news, sports, government, crime, weather, restaurant, and community event coverage for Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, and the greater Thurston County / South Sound region of Washington State. It distributes this journalism across a print edition, a digital subscription website, an e-edition replica, native mobile apps, and email newsletters, with additional revenue generated from display, classified, sponsored, and obituary advertising.

Product overview

The Olympian is a regional newspaper serving Olympia, WA, offering a multi-platform news portfolio comprising core print and digital subscription products, an E-Edition digital replica, mobile apps, and specialized content verticals. The Digital Subscription provides unlimited online access with a personalized, ad-reduced experience, while the E-Edition delivers the full print newspaper digitally with exclusive content. The Newspaper also offers a Newsletter Suite for topic-specific email delivery, Games & Puzzles for entertainment, Classifieds for local marketplace activity, Obituaries via Legacy.com integration, a Money personal finance section, and Product Reviews covering health, business, and shopping categories. The product portfolio operates as a platform-plus-verticals model under the McClatchy Media Network.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Olympian: Primary newspaper brand covering local news, sports, crime, politics, and community events in Olympia and Thurston County, Washington.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• McClatchy CompanycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Olympian is owned and operated by The McClatchy Company, one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States. McClatchy provides centralized technology, advertising infrastructure, content syndication across its network of 30+ publications, and corporate oversight. The Olympian operates as part of the McClatchy Media Network.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• The Daily News (Longview, WA): A smaller daily regional newspaper serving Longview/Kelso and Cowlitz County in Southwest Washington. Highly comparable as a small-to-mid-market Washington daily with similar revenue mix and operating pressures, providing a useful scale-comparable benchmark.
• The News Tribune: A daily regional newspaper serving Tacoma and Pierce County, Washington, and a sister publication within the McClatchy Media Network. Closest comparable to The Olympian in terms of ownership structure, product mix, and operating geography in Western Washington.
• Bellingham Herald: A regional daily newspaper serving Bellingham and Whatcom County, Washington, also owned by McClatchy. Comparable in business model (print + digital subscriptions + advertising), revenue streams, and shared technology infrastructure as a sister McClatchy publication.

Regional players

• The Spokesman-Review: A daily regional newspaper serving Spokane and the Inland Northwest region of Washington state. Directly comparable hyperlocal-news business model (subscription + advertising) operating in a different but adjacent Washington state geography, illustrating the state-wide peer set for daily regional papers.
• The Columbian: Regional daily newspaper serving Vancouver, Washington and Clark County, just across the Columbia River from Portland. A close proxy for a mid-sized Washington daily competing for Pacific Northwest advertising share and reader attention.

Others

• Associated Press (AP): A global news cooperative that provides wire content to The Olympian and other regional papers. Relevant as an ecosystem participant that both enables The Olympian's national and international coverage and competes as a substitute source for non-local news consumption.
• FOX 13 Seattle (KCPQ): A Seattle-based local TV news outlet covering the Puget Sound region including Olympia-adjacent markets. Comparable as a local-news competitor for both audience attention and local advertising spend, and an adjacent media format against which The Olympian's local-news value proposition must compete.

Broad incumbents

• The Seattle Times: The dominant regional daily newspaper serving the broader Puget Sound region including the Seattle metropolitan area. Operates overlapping hyperlocal coverage in Western Washington with a larger newsroom, more resources, and a separately held ownership structure (notably not part of McClatchy), making it both a larger incumbent and a partial substitute for The Olympian's coverage area.
• Gannett | USA Today Network: The largest U.S. newspaper chain, operating hundreds of local dailies including regional dailies in the Pacific Northwest. Directly comparable to McClatchy in scale and business model, and a major competitive force for local advertising and reader attention in Washington state markets adjacent to Olympia.

Emerging players

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer (seattlepi.com): Former print daily converted to a digital-only operation covering the Seattle metropolitan area. Comparable as a legacy Washington newspaper brand pivoted to digital-first, illustrating how hyperlocal subscription economics can shift when print is shed — a directional peer for The Olympian's digital transformation.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/theolympian
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/olyphoto
• Facebookfacebook.com/TheOlympian
• Instagraminstagram.com/the_olympian_newspaper
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-olympian-newspaper

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Olympian