Wilsons sell Leader; paper stays independent

Posted

The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader has new owners, effective this week.

Brothers Lloyd Mullen, 28, and J. Louis Mullen, 31, purchased the Leader from Scott Wilson and Jennifer James-Wilson.

Lloyd Mullen, the general manager of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, has taken the helm as the Leader's new publisher. His brother Louis owns weekly papers in Idaho; Newport, Washington; and Wyoming, where he works and lives with his wife, Lisa, and daughter Nora.

“I’ve known Scott for a few years and had the opportunity to come up to Port Townsend multiple times. It’s a phenomenal newspaper. I’m grateful to be here,” said Lloyd Mullen.

The sale marks the end of the Wilsons’ tenure as co-owners, sole owners or publishers after almost 27 years. They arrived in October 1989.

“We have been elevated in every way during our time at Washington’s best community newspaper,” said Scott Wilson, 61. “In welcoming Lloyd Mullen to the helm, we sustain the independent local ownership that has been so important to us and to the community the Leader serves. He is young, energized about the future of community media and, like me, grew up in a respected community newspaper family. He’s the new publisher Jennifer and I were hoping for.”

Jennifer James-Wilson, 58, has been the Leader’s co-owner and associate publisher.

The Mullen duo grew up in the newspaper business, learning every aspect of it. Their parents, Tom and Ann Mullen, own and operate community newspapers throughout the west, in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Shelton, Washington.

Lloyd Mullen is moving to the Port Townsend community next week from his Olympia home. His wife, Karen, is a dietitian now attending graduate school at The Evergreen State College.

“We’ll continue in the Wilsons’ standard of excellence,” Lloyd Mullen said. “My family has always been committed to the betterment of the communities we live in. We’ve always found the best way to do that is to give voice to the community. Completely local. Completely self-driven and independent. If I can be a part of that, I’ll be happy.”

Under the Mullens’ ownership, the Shelton-Mason County Journal has won "general excellence" awards from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. The Leader has also been honored in that award category.

The transition marks the end of one multigenerational story of Washington community media, the Wilsons’, and the midpoint of another, the Mullens’.