The Garfield Messenger

What The Garfield Messenger does

The Garfield Messenger is a student-run weekly newspaper published by students of Garfield High School in the Central District of Seattle, Washington, and has been in continuous operation since 1922. The publication covers News, Opinion, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment, producing print issues on a roughly 2-3 week cycle that are distributed on campus to the school's ~1,600+ students and faculty, with a subset mailed to paying subscribers. It also maintains a WordPress-based digital edition (garfieldmessenger.org, built on the SNO FLEX Pro theme) plus active social media accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and Facebook, and a searchable digital archive of past issues back to school year 2013-2014. The editorial team consists of approximately 30 unpaid student contributors organized under a Managing Editor and section editors (Graphics & Layout, News/Feature/Opinion, Arts & Entertainment, Sports, Social Media & Business).

Name

The Garfield Messenger

Legal name

The Garfield Messenger

Website

https://garfieldmessenger.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1922

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Garfield Messenger is a student-run newspaper at Garfield High School in Seattle, publishing print and digital journalism across News, Opinion, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment since 1922 for the school's ~1,600+ students, families, faculty, and broader Central District community.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Student Newspaper

NAICS

Newspaper Publishers (513110), Periodical Publishers (51312)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Newsletters & Email-Based News Publishers (B2B/B2C) (MPAJADAJ)

Keywords

• Student newspaper
• High school journalism
• School news publication
• Print newspaper
• Community journalism

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Subscription Revenue: Annual mailed newspaper subscriptions sold to families, community members, and alumni using a pay-what-you-can model. Costs approximately $20 per year to ship; recommended $40 for seniors and $80-100 for supporting families.
2. Advertising Sales: Print advertising sold to local businesses and school-affiliated organizations (clubs get half off). Ads start at $30 for 1/12 page in one issue; orders for 4+ issues receive a discount. Invoice issued after each issue with printed copy provided.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Garfield Messenger is a journalistically independent, student-run newspaper at Garfield High School in Seattle that publishes News, Opinion, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment sections in print every 2–3 weeks and online. It operates a pay-what-you-can mailed subscription service for families, alumni, and community members, sells print advertising to local businesses and school-affiliated organizations, and maintains a digital archive of past issues.

Product overview

The Garfield Messenger is a single unified student newspaper product published by Garfield High School students. The core offering is the physical and digital newspaper with four main content sections: News, Opinion, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment. Supporting products include digital archives of past issues, a subscription service for mailed physical copies, and advertising space for external buyers. The publication has operated since 1922 and is distributed every 2-3 weeks.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Garfield Messenger Newspaper A journalistically independent student-run newspaper at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington, publishing News, Opinion, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment sections. The newspaper is distributed in print every 2–3 weeks on the Garfield High School campus and is also available digitally on garfieldmessenger.org.
• Digital Archives

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• The Daily Northwestern: Student-run daily newspaper at Northwestern University covering news, sports, and arts; comparable in structure, content sections, and reliance on subscription + advertising revenue.
• The Harvard Crimson: One of the oldest and most prominent student-run college newspapers (founded 1873); shares the same model of student-staffed editorial leadership, multi-section journalism, and dual print/digital distribution.
• The Stanford Daily: Long-running student-run newspaper at Stanford University; comparable because both are editorially independent student publications covering News, Opinion, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment with print + digital distribution and subscription/advertising revenue models.

Regional players

• PubliCola: Independent Seattle local journalism outlet covering city politics and community affairs; shares the Messenger's accountability-journalism positioning and Seattle hyper-local focus.
• Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: Hyper-local Seattle digital news outlet covering the Central District and Capitol Hill neighborhoods that overlap with the Garfield Messenger's geographic audience; competes for the same community news attention.

Others

• School Newspapers Online (SNO): Provider of the WordPress-based FLEX Pro platform used by the Garfield Messenger; an enabling infrastructure vendor rather than a competitor, but sits in the same student-journalism ecosystem.
• KUOW Public Radio: Seattle NPR member station producing news and podcasts; thematically related as a Seattle-area independent journalism outlet that competes for audience attention in the same local news market.

Broad incumbents

• The Seattle Times: Seattle's major regional newspaper with broad news, sports, and arts coverage; competes for the same advertisers and Seattle readers, though at a vastly larger professional scale.
• The Stranger: Seattle-based alternative weekly covering news, arts, and culture with print + digital distribution and advertising-supported revenue; overlaps geographically and editorially with the Garfield Messenger's audience.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@GhsMessenger
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php?id=61565708443447
• Instagraminstagram.com/thegarfieldmessenger
• TikToktiktok.com/@garfieldmessenger
• Xx.com/GHSmessenger

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 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 Garfield Messenger