Guide
Overview
The Seattle Times, family owned since 1896, is Washington's largest newspaper by circulation and the main paper for King County and the state's largest courts, and the Spokesman-Review in Spokane covers the Inland Northwest. The News Tribune in Tacoma, the Everett Herald, the Columbian in Vancouver, the Bellingham Herald, the Tri-City Herald, the Yakima Herald-Republic, the Olympian in the capital, the Kitsap Sun, the Wenatchee World and the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin cover their regions, and the Washington State Standard and Crosscut cover state government online. Seattle lost its second daily when the Post-Intelligencer went online only in 2009.
Washington newspapers carry the legal notices state law requires for trustee's sales, estates and government actions, publish obituaries for 39 counties, and hold court coverage that pairs with the free Washington Courts case search.
Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.
Guide
Washington Newspapers
Find local and statewide newspaper publications for Washington. Access news, sports, classified, entertainment, and archived articles.
Guide
Major Washington newspapers and what they cover
The Times covers Seattle, King County, the federal court and, through its Olympia bureau, state government and the Washington Supreme Court, with back issues from the 1890s onward in the digital archives. The Spokesman-Review covers Spokane County and eastern Washington and north Idaho, the News Tribune covers Pierce County and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the Herald covers Snohomish County and Boeing's Everett plant, and the Columbian covers Clark County. County weeklies such as the Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle, the Waitsburg Times and the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber carry county commission minutes, sheriff's reports and superior court notices.
Guide
Historic Washington newspapers online
Washington Digital Newspapers from the Washington State Library offers free digitized Washington newspapers from the territorial era onward and contributes to Chronicling America. The State Library in Tumwater holds newspaper microfilm for every county, and the Seattle Public Library provides free access to the Times and Post-Intelligencer archives with a library card and keeps a Seattle newspaper index. The University of Washington Libraries hold early Puget Sound titles.
Guide
Legal notices, public notices and obituaries in Washington
Washington law requires trustee's sale notices for foreclosures, probate notices to creditors, name changes, tax foreclosure lists and county, city and special district notices to be published in a legal newspaper in the county, and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association collects them in a statewide search. The dailies and most weeklies in Washington publish obituaries, and the Seattle Public Library's index covers older deaths. Court coverage pairs with the free Washington Courts case search for superior, district and municipal courts.
Guide
Browse Newspapers by State
Straight answers
Washington Newspaper Directory, questions
What is Washington's largest newspaper by circulation?
The Seattle Times, followed by the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, the News Tribune in Tacoma, the Everett Herald and the Columbian in Vancouver.
Where are historic Washington newspapers online?
Washington Digital Newspapers from the State Library offers free digitized titles from the territorial era onward, and Chronicling America adds more.
Where are Washington trustee's sale notices published?
In a legal newspaper in the county where the property sits, collected in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association's statewide public notice search.