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Welcome to Willamette Week, Portland’s leading independent voice for local news and culture. Our mission is to provide Portlanders with an independent and irreverent understanding of how their worlds work so they can make a difference. We specialize in in-depth investigative reporting and arts and culture coverage. WW is the only weekly newspaper in U.S. history to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
Free, Independent, and Local
We believe in fact-based journalism that informs the public and holds the powerful accountable. Our reporting is free, unbiased news without corporate influence. Our owners are Portlanders and former WW reporters, Mark Zusman and Richard Meeker. After Zusman and Meeker bought WW in 1983, their first major decision was to make it free for readers — it’s been that way ever since.
News in Print and Online
Find WW in print at a blue box near you using our map or have it delivered to your door for a small delivery fee. You can also access WW on our website or via email by signing up for our newsletters. Make sure to keep an eye out for our seasonal magazines!
Real Impact
Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Our focus on investigative reporting means we dig deeper into the stories that often go untold, bringing you the kind of journalism that holds power to account.
This standard of in-depth reporting is also true of our arts and culture coverage. Whether it’s theater, music, visual arts, or food, we pride ourselves on offering insightful journalism that goes far beyond an events calendar or your typical review.
Over the past 50 years, Willamette Week has become Portland’s — and Oregon’s — most consequential news source. Click here to see some examples of our impact in 2024.
Friends of Willamette Week
Like all newspapers, WW used to be filled with classified ads. Digital and cultural shifts have reduced traditional sources of revenue for media companies, and operating costs have gone up. This has led to a dramatic decline in local independent news companies across the nation. Many have been bought by out-of-state conglomerates or corporations, and/or stopped printing papers altogether.
Friends of Willamette Week was founded in 2019 to help WW be sustainable under our changing business model. Reader support saved us during the pandemic years when advertising and event promotion revenue dropped to record lows. Today, about 20% of our operating costs are funded by reader support, and we are so grateful. To become a Friend of Willamette Week, click here. Note: FOWW is not a nonprofit.
Give!Guide
Give!Guide is WW’s annual charitable giving campaign that has raised more than $73 million for hundreds of local nonprofits since its inception in 2004. Alongside raising money for nonprofits, a key goal of the campaign is to encourage Portlanders 35 and under to give back to the community — and to build a culture of active citizenship and young philanthropists. Give!Guide is active November through December. Click here for more information!
Willamette Week