The Olympian

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Newspaper in Olympia, Washington, US

title: "The Olympian" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mass-media-in-olympia,-washington", "mcclatchy-publications", "newspapers-published-in-washington-(state)", "1860-establishments-in-washington-territory", "newspapers-established-in-1860"] description: "Newspaper in Olympia, Washington, US" topic_path: "general/mass-media-in-olympia-washington" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Olympian" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Newspaper in Olympia, Washington, US ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox newspaper"]

Field	Value
name	The Olympian
logo	The Olympian logo.svg
image	[[Image:The Olympian front page.jpg
caption	The July 27, 2005 front page of
The Olympian
type	Daily newspaper
format	Broadsheet
founded	1860 (as The Washington Standard)
owners	The McClatchy Company
founder	John Miller Murphy
language	English
circulation	13,153 Daily
15,454 Sunday
circulation_date	2020
circulation_ref
headquarters	400 Union Ave. SE, Suite 200
Olympia, WA 98501
United States
ISSN	0746-7575
oclc	10253415
website
::

The Olympian is a daily newspaper based in Olympia, Washington, in the United States. It is owned by The McClatchy Company and publishes a daily printed edition.

History

Olympia was home to the first newspaper to be published in modern-day Washington, The Columbian (unrelated to the modern publication), which published its first edition on September 11, 1852.

The Olympian started in 1860 as The Washington Standard, a weekly paper. It was founded by John Miller Murphy, and its first issue was released on November 17, 1860. The paper became The Daily Olympian in February 1889 when it began publishing daily. Many people in Olympia still refer to The Olympian by its former name, or as "The Daily O."

The Daily Olympian and another Olympia newspaper, The Daily Recorder, merged in 1928. The Daily Olympian moved from its original home, on Legion Way and Washington Street, to the Capitol Press Building at the corner of Capitol Way and State Avenue.

Owner Sam Perkins died in 1955. Federated Publications bought The Bellingham Herald and The Daily Olympian from the Perkins Press company in 1967, and merged with the Gannett Corporation in 1971.

The Daily Olympian moved to its location at 111 Bethel Street in 1972. It's name was shortened to The Olympian in 1982.

In September 2005, The Olympian was traded by Gannett Company, Inc., along with The Bellingham Herald and Boise newspapers, to Knight Ridder in exchange for the Tallahassee Democrat. In 2006, Knight Ridder was acquired by The McClatchy Company.

In June 2017, The Olympian announced that it would move to an office in downtown Olympia, on the corner of Legion Way and Franklin Street. The building on Bethel Street was to be occupied by the Olympia School District's administrative office.

In 2019, printing of the paper was moved to the press of The Columbian in Vancouver, Washington. Before that, it had been printed for many years in Tacoma on a press originally part of The News Tribune. The age of that press made it too costly to maintain. Starting on Jan. 25, 2020, The Olympian ceased producing a printed newspaper on Saturdays and replaced it with expanded newspapers on Fridays and Sundays.

In July 2023, The Olympian switched from delivering physical papers by local carrier to using the U.S. Mail. In March 2024, the paper announced it would decrease the number of print editions to three a week starting May 6.

Olympics trademark dispute

McClatchy submitted a trademark application for The Olympian in 2006, which was disputed by the United States Olympic Committee under the terms of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, amended in 1998, which gives the USOC exclusive control of various names derived from the name "Olympic Games". But the 1998 law makes an exception to protect businesses and services in Washington state that were not named for the Olympic Games, but rather the geographic locations sharing the name. The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted The Olympian its requested trademark in 2011.

References

(2022-02-09). "McClatchy {{!}} Markets".
Katz, William A.. (March 1963). "The Columbian: Washington Territory's First Newspaper". Oregon Historical Quarterly.
Dougherty, Phil. (September 2, 2017). "The Columbian, Washington's first newspaper, is published in Olympia on September 11, 1852.". HistoryLink.
Himes, George H.. (August 11, 1912). "John Miller Murphy Closes Long Career". The Sunday Oregonian.
"About Us". The Olympian.
(October 31, 1955). "Aged Publisher 'Sam' Perkins Dies in Tacoma". Santa Barbara News-Press.
(February 27, 1906). "Morning Olympian Sold". The Post-Intelligencer.
(June 29, 1971). "Federated Publications Merge With Gannett". Bonner County Daily Bee.
Wyland, Scott. (January 31, 2002). "Newspaper has colorful history". The Olympian.
(March 13, 2006). "Media shakeup: McClatchy to buy Knight Ridder".
"Executive Editor". The Olympian.
"School Improvement Bond Projects".
Cockrell, Debbie. (February 3, 2019). "They stopped the presses. Printing of The News Tribune and The Olympian outsourced".
(2019-10-23). "The News Tribune, The Olympian to stop printing Saturday newspapers".
Demarest, Dusti. (May 11, 2023). "Changes coming to The Olympian's print, digital products".
Demarest, Dusti. (1 March 2024). "The Olympian to change print days as digital transition evolves".
Hill, Christian. (October 6, 2009). "Newspaper trademark bid challenged by U.S. Olympic Committee". The Seattle Times.
(November 18, 2013). "International Olympic Committee Won't Challenge Russian Anti-Gay Broadcast Under Olympic Banner". [[BuzzFeed News]].

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