Relevant and profitable mission

John Winn Miller, publisher of The Olympian is on a mission, to keep his newspaper relevant and profitable.  

Miller recently revealed that they would be printing a new visitors guide to the Northwest entitled “Northwest Compass.”  To try and take advantage of the millions of new visitors coming to Thurston County thanks to Cabela’s and the Great Wolf Lodge.  Miller said the initial printing would be 100,000 and would be distributed through Cabela’s, Great Wolf Lodge and other hotels and visitors centers.  If successful a second printing would be done each year.  Miller hopes to eventually convince the local Visitor’s Bureau to use “Northwest Compass” as the official visitor’s guide.

Miller also joined with several local businesses and radio stations to promote the new slogan “Living is Better Here.”  Miller said that thanks to state government, we haven’t had such a hard financial hit as some areas.  The effort to promote “Living is Better Here” is to convince local residents that we’re in pretty good shape.

Miller’s most unusual new venture is “Vitality 411”.  As part of The Olympian’s web page, this “button” will allow people to look up information regarding health, doctors and other medical information.  The long term goal is to get people to use “Vitality 411” as a storage space for their own personal medical information, which can then be accessed by doctors and emergency medical crews as needed.

Miller’s efforts are attempts to make the paper relevant and at the same time, make a few dollars for the McClatchy chain.