Brennan LaBrie's favorite newspapers are The New York Times and The Leader.

But one of his favorite things to do these days is to report, edit and publish Brennan's Spruce St. Weekly,a newspaper the 9-year-old also hand-delivers every Sunday in his Port Townsend neighborhood.

The Mountain View Elementary third-grader got the idea for Brennan's Spruce St. Weekly while swinging on the playground Feb. 1.

The next day his first issue was hot off the copier.

It was simple. He likes people. His house is next to the entrance of a public trail. The ingredients for a good newspaper were all around him.

"Everybody walks by and tells me the news," LaBrie said of people walking past his house to get to and from the city trail off Spruce Street.

During a recent interview in his newsroom just off his home's kitchen, LaBrie talked about his paper and the future of newspapers.

At a well-lit wood-plank desk where political fliers and implements of the trade were neatly piled in stacks, LaBrie was busy working on a cruise ship article that was going to be "really huge" in the next issue.

"I want people to get what a cruise ship looks like and feels like," he said enthusiastically.

The eagle-eyed reporter-editor-publisher thumbed through several political fliers and frowned. Something was amiss.

Jefferson County Democrat David Sullivan's flier says he's in District 1. He's actually in District 2. LaBrie caught the error but didn't pass judgment.

"Pretty much all the county commissioner candidates are nice. I haven't talked to Phil [Johnson] yet, and it isn't fair if I write about Dennis [Schultz], Sandy [Hershelman] and David and not him. They're all such nice people," LaBrie repeated, adding he wouldn't want to endorse anyone or even show an opinion.

In fact, he didn't plan on announcing the winners of the races.

He understands politics a bit too. He ran for student council and won, then ran for vice president and lost.

While large daily newspapers are folding, laying off staff and moving to Web versions, and publishers are fretting over dwindling revenue and dropping circulation, Brennan LaBrie is out peddling a couple of dozen copies of his neatly hand-penciled two-page paper every Sunday for 25 cents, confident in the industry's future.

Since February, when his first edition was published, he has earned about $100 - not that he's in it for the money.

He did have to skip publishing for a few weeks when he was out of town and once when there wasn't much neighborhood news.

Still, the young publisher is sure newspapers will exist in the future because he says newspapers make people happy - and he's happy when he writes and designs his.

"I love writing and I love designing and I like how happy people are to get my paper," he said.

"I don't see many people relax in front of a computer," LaBrie said. "I see people want to relax and get a cup of coffee and read newspapers."

He's been getting advice from people who know a few things about newspapers, including former Leader owner-publisher Frank Garred, who has given him "lots of tips," and his teacher Bruce Cowan, who often buys his paper.

He also sends it to friends across town and relatives across the United States. And he has a neatly kept archive of every edition.

"I'm having lots of fun," LaBrie said, explaining how he likes to do rough drafts of his design, making sure the stories are neat in their boxes so people can read his stories with ease.

His 7-year-old brother, Bodie, has been assisting. Bodie has published several special editions, including one that detailed Brennan falling out of a tree.

LaBrie also gives credit to his mother, Colleen. "My mom helps me a lot. She's written screenplays and books," LaBrie said.

Colleen said that practically the first word out of Brennan's mouth was "why?"

Dad Denis LaBrie also supports the endeavor.

"If I go under, it's because ink cartridges are too expensive," LaBrie quipped about his parents underwriting his publication.

 So what part is hard about working on a newspaper? he's asked.

"Collecting the information. I always wonder if there's any news I'm missing," he said.

Adding fun facts and cartoons are the easy part. "People subscribe for my fun facts," he acknowledged.

One fun fact explained how the Popsicle was invented. (See the June 29 edition.) He gets the fun facts and jokes out of books.

So what's the news on Spruce Street?

In the Sept. 28 edition there was a headline about "Noah," a new baby born to Craig and Sarah. Noah Lynn Isenberg arrived in the neighborhood three weeks earlier. He had blue eyes and weighed "a little over six pounds and likes to eat."

"They chose the name Noah because they liked the sound of it," LaBrie wrote.

In the same edition there was an overview of the District 2 county commissioner race in which he interviewed Sullivan and independent Sandy Hershelman. Both of those stories jump to the back page, where there was an explanation of the Proposition 1 ballot issue.

Printed above that hard news on that page was the joke of the week: "How does a pirate pay for his earrings?" A buccaneer! (A buck-an-ear!)

Back in July, he wrote about "Debbie and Dennis of V St., up by Redwood St.," who got a new Zenn car in Seattle.

He also wrote about a bus stop that was vandalized and included a drawing of the bus stop before it was damaged.

"I've learned how exciting it is to write a newspaper," he said.

When he delivers the paper, he also collects news for the next issue.

When not writing or designing, Brennan and Bodie likely can be found reading or taking classes or doing sports such as tennis and gymnastics. They've taken violin classes, French, chess and circus classes as well as tap dancing.

Television is not part of their world. LaBrie says he and his brother would rather spend time doing arts and crafts or engaging in other activities.

On the anniversary of his first issue - Feb. 2, 2009 - LaBrie says he'll decide whether to continue to publish.

"If I decide to keep on, then I'll keep going on. I'll probably keep going on."

After hearing of his attention to detail and interest in writing, Leader Managing Editor Patrick J. Sullivan offered LaBrie a column in The Leader. "We've had a lot of interns and mentor students," he said.

LaBrie watched Tuesday as his story was placed on the front page of The Leader, one of his favorite newspapers, a newspaper he might someday write for - when he's not busy editing and publishing Brennan's Spruce St. Weekly.