Sound Publishing is proud to announce the launch of two new monthly publications serving the interests and needs of military veterans in the Puget Sound region.
The new Veterans Life will focus on veterans issues in Kitsap County, while the Whidbey Crosswind will cover those issues for the veteran community on Whidbey Island.
Lori Maxim, Sound Publishing’s Vice President for West Sound Operations, hailed the opportunity to serve veteran communities whose service and interests deserve dedicated publications.
“I am so proud that we have created products that will have such lasting effect on our community,” Maxim said. “Veterans LIfe and the new Whidbey Crosswind fill a niche that up until now has not been properly served for our readers and advertisers.”
The debut edition of Veterans Life appeared on newsstands March 23 with the April edition and includes “In Your Name,” a comprehensive look at recent veteran-oriented legislation in Olympia and what it means for returning and longtime veterans. Other features include veteran profiles, personal commentaries from veterans of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and information on Veterans Administration programs and benefits.
Editing the publication is Greg Skinner, a U.S. Army veteran of the first Gulf War. Skinner also serves as editor of the Central Kitsap Reporter, Bremerton Patriot and Port Orchard Independent newspapers. Veterans Life publisher is Sean McDonald.
“Written for veterans and edited by a veteran, our mission is to give readers a monthly news magazine that readers can count on for needed information on benefits and veterans rights,” Skinner said. “It’s what has been missing in the local media lineup.”
Veterans Life will be produced in Sound Publishing’s office in Silverdale, Kitsap County.
Print distribution will be 8,500 each month through newsstand and subscription. The publication can be found online at www.kitsapveteranslife.com.
Kitsap County is home to more than 38,000 veterans, with hundreds more joining their ranks as they return from deployment in the Middle East.
Sound Publishing has also refocused the current Whidbey Crosswind publication (until recently, a weekly newspaper covering base activities at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island) into a monthly news magazine serving veterans and military retirees on Whidbey Island.
Launch of the refocused Whidbey Crosswind, to be edited by Kathy Reed in Sound Publishing’s Coupeville office, was also in late March. The debut edition includes coverage of the local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars groups, and other features of interest to Whidbey Island veterans.
“We discovered early on in producing the Whidbey Crosswind that we had more readers who were veterans and retirees than active duty military,” Reed said. “This change is a perfect opportunity to better serve our readers by focusing on the issues that directly affect them.”
Print distribution of the Whidbey Crosswind will be 7,000 each month through newsstands and subscription. The publication can be found online atwww.whidbeycrosswind.com.
Whidbey Island is home to an estimated 13,300 veterans and military retirees and their families.
Based in Washington State, Sound Publishing, Inc., owns and operates 38 community newspapers and 14 Little Nickel publications in the greater Puget Sound area. In fall of 2011, Sound Publishing added the Peninsula Daily News (Port Angeles), Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum to their community newspaper holdings. Collectively, Sound Publishing has a circulation of 773,126.
Sound Publishing’s broad household distribution blankets the greater Puget Sound region, extending northward from Seattle to Canada, south to Salem, Ore., and westward to the Pacific Ocean.