The Hillsboro Tribune is a weekly newspaper published on Wednesdays that covers the city of Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned by the Pamplin Media Group, the newspaper published its first issue on September 7, 2012. It was Pamplin's first new paper since 2001, when the company started the Portland Tribune, and was designed to complement its other local papers in the Portland metropolitan area. The Tribune competed with the now defunct Hillsboro Argus, which is owned by Advance Publications, and which also publishes The Oregonian that competes with the Portland Tribune. John Schrag served as the first publisher, with Kevin Harden, Jim Redden, and Jennifer Anderson as the news team. Pamplin distributes the paper free at newsstands in the Hillsboro and Aloha areas, as well as via home delivery with a paid subscription. The weekly paper changed its publication day from Fridays to Wednesdays in February 2018.
History
Hillsboro Tribune intern flies 2016 Oregon International Air Show - Pamplin Media Group newspaper the Hillsboro Tribune sent intern Ryan Lackey to cover the Oregon International Air Show.
Pamplin announced the launch of the new newspaper on August 21, 2012, in the News-Times of Forest Grove. Hillsboro last had two newspapers in 1932, at which time the owner of the Argus purchased the Washington Independent and merged the papers. The Tribune was originally published biweekly, but at the time of its launch its owners were already hoping to expand to weekly publication, and this was goal achieved in March 2013.
The first edition of the newspaper published on Friday, September 7, 2012, included stories covering the planned Hillsboro baseball stadium, STEM programs (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in local schools, and exploring Hillsboro and the county's economic impact upon the larger metropolitan area. The cover story dealt with money the State of Oregon owed to Washington County being held-up by a potential glitch in a law. This inaugural edition was mailed to 7,000 residents, with other copies available at green newspaper boxes in the local area, primarily at businesses. Pamplin would distribute the paper free at newsstands in the Hillsboro and Aloha areas, as well as via home delivery with a subscription.
The month after the Tribune's launch, the publishers of the Argus launched the Forest Grove Leader to compete with the News-Times in neighboring Forest Grove, which was published by the same company as the Tribune. The publisher for the Tribune and News-Times stated he thought the new paper in Forest Grove was retaliation for the launch of the Tribune. The initial period of biweekly publication ended in March 2013, when the paper became a weekly. At the same time, original editor Kevin Harden left for a different position with Pamplin Media Group, the Tribune's owner, and Nancy Townsley became the paper's managing editor. The Tribune won three awards in its category in 2014 from the Society of Professional Journalists' Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest for its 2013 coverage. Nikki DeBuse became the paper's publisher on February 1, 2016, succeeding John Schrag.
Free subscriptions to the Tribune, delivered by mail, were introduced experimentally in early 2017. This service lasted about one year, being discontinued in early February 2018 and replaced by a return to paid subscriptions for readers wanting home delivery. The paper continues to be free at newsstands.
After five years of being published on Fridays, the weekly paper's publication date was moved to Wednesdays effective February 7, 2018. Prior to this change, each weekly edition had to be readied for printing two days before publication, effectively delaying the Tribune's print-edition reporting of Wednesday and Thursday news by a week, because the Hillsboro Tribune needed to be printed on Tuesday nights in order to fit into the printing schedule at Pamplin's press in Gresham, Oregon, where many other Pamplin newspapers are printed. The printing schedule is unchanged, but the move to Wednesday publication means that paper is now distributed only hours after being printed.
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