Pacific Northwest Magazine To End

Pacific Northwest magazine will be consolidated into Seattle magazine in January, according to the owner, Adams Publishing of the Pacific Northwest.

"Part of it has to do with maintaining and building circulation," said Ann Naumann, publishing director for Adams. "We questioned the viability of the niche it occupies."

Subscribers to Pacific Northwest will be offered refunds, she said; otherwise, they will receive Seattle magazine for the remainder of their subscriptions. Seattle magazine will be expanded to cover more regional stories, particularly travel and environmental pieces, the specialty of Pacific Northwest.

Seattle's frequency will also increase to 11 issues annually instead of eight.

"We feel this evolution is a strong response to what both readers and advertisers have indicated they want," said Pacific Northwest publisher Peggy Bilous.

Bilous will take the job of chief operating officer for Adams' sister company, Adams Trade Press Inc., in Palm Springs, Calif.

While Pacific Northwest's circulation and advertising sales have remained steady for the past two years, said Naumann, Seattle magazine "has been enjoying phenomenal growth."

Seattle magazine enjoyed a 50 percent increase in advertising revenue in 1993 and 1994; in the same period Pacific Northwest's has increased only 3.5 percent. Circulation for the lame-duck periodical was holding steady at about 77,000, she said.

The staff at Adams is being reduced to 14 from 18.

Pacific Northwest was founded in 1966 by King Broadcasting heiress Harriet Bullitt as Pacific Search. In the early years it was an ecology-conscious environmental magazine published with the help of the Pacific Science Center's facilities and mailing list. Circulation for the 10-page first issue was about 4,500.

In 1976 the format changed to include color and advertising, and in 1980 the name was changed to Pacific Northwest. Bullitt sold the magazine to Micromedia Corp. in 1987, and it was sold to Adams in November 1992.

Pacific Northwest "had the ambition to create a quality magazine about this corner of the country," said Knute Berger, editor of the Seattle Weekly and formerly a writer for Washington magazine, a competitor in the mid-1980s. "We always viewed Pacific Northwest as a magzine with high standards we wanted to exceed," he added.

Berger said the writers and editors for both magazines were very ambitious and competitive, and that Pacific Northwest "embodied the region" in the 1980s. But, he added, "I've become disheartened in recent years. It became more and more like an airline in-flight magazine. Professionally done, but it lacked heart and ambition."