Terry Ward on Resilience, Local Journalism & Building Ward Media | Networked Podcast Ep. 8

What happens when you grow up without stability—but with a relentless drive to lead?

In this episode of Networked, host David Mabee sits down with Terry Ward, co-founder of Ward Media and a veteran of the publishing industry. Terry shares his powerful journey from a childhood marked by homelessness and hardship to launching a media company that now owns five newspapers across North Central Washington.

Ward Media publishes the Wenatchee Business Journal, Lake Chelan Mirror, Leavenworth Echo, Cashmere Valley Record, and Quad City Herald — all with a mission to bring trusted, community-centered journalism back to the forefront.

🎙️ In this episode:
 – Terry’s early life and what fueled his resilience
 – His 25+ year career in corporate media
 – Why he launched Ward Media — and what sets it apart
 – What it means to build a legacy and serve your hometown

This is a story about grit, purpose, and redefining what local impact looks like.

🔔 Follow Networked on Spotify to hear more real conversations with entrepreneurs and changemakers across North Central Washington.

#Entrepreneurship #LocalNews #MediaInnovation #FlywheelWinner #NetworkedPodcast #WardMedia #Leadership

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:20 Early Life & Upbringing
• 7:04 Career in Publishing
• 14:15 Launching Ward Media
• 24:25 Signature Questions & Reflection
• 33:52 Closing and Outro

Transcript

00:00:07:03 - 00:00:30:08
David Mabee
Are you ready for networks? Welcome back to network, the podcast that brings you real talk to inspire, invest and Empower North central Washington. I'm your host. David may be the marketing director at NCW Tech Alliance. Today's guest is somebody who embodies the spirit of reinvention. Terry Ward is a co-founder of Ward media, a company making bold moves in the world of local journalism.

00:00:30:13 - 00:00:52:04
David Mabee
In 2023, Ward media acquired five regional newspapers, stepping in to ensure that local stories continue to be told by and for the communities they serve. But Terry's path to becoming a media executive and founder is far from typical. Raised as a migrant worker family, he experienced homelessness, instability and a deep personal loss, including the death of his father before he was born.

00:00:52:06 - 00:01:13:01
David Mabee
His story is one of grit, resilience and purpose. Today we talk about his journey from hardship to leadership, why he believes in the power of local news, and what it means to build something new, even decades later. I want to bring in Terry Ward right now. Terry, how are you doing this morning? I'm good. Thanks for having me on the show.

00:01:13:01 - 00:01:30:14
David Mabee
Yeah, the crowd is stoked there. And happy to have you here on this beautiful day. Terry, I want to dive in. I've read about your story. I saw it online, and I asked you about it to make sure you're good with it, but, you had a powerful early life, I guess. Traumatic loss of your father before you even born.

00:01:30:16 - 00:01:55:17
David Mabee
Can you kind of dive into that? And give me your your side of that story or what? What that experience kind of has in your memories? Yeah, I'm happy to. Thanks, David. So six months to the day before I was born, my my father died in a car accident. My mom was, pregnant with me. She had I have I have an older brother and two older sisters.

00:01:55:19 - 00:02:21:26
Terry Ward
And so with that, it kind of kind of catapulted us into a series of, I would say, a series of unfortunate events. Right. We ended up, homeless when I was very young. We traveled picking fruits and vegetables and a lot of Western state. I'm originally from Oklahoma, my home towns in Oklahoma, and I, my life started there.

00:02:21:26 - 00:02:43:04
Terry Ward
So as, as we kind of moved forward, my mom, was pretty young when she got married. She got married at the age of 16 years old. Back in Oklahoma, in those days, that wasn't uncommon. And here she was, a 27 year old, widow with four young kids or three young kids and one on the way.

00:02:43:06 - 00:03:15:29
Terry Ward
And so, you know, she didn't have much of an education, didn't have worked a lot of menial jobs. And so we ended up kind of homeless and kind of worked together as a family. And so we traveled all across the country. I went to three dozen schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, and ultimately got to see a lot of the United States during that time period, whether it's California or we're going to actually, my first experience when I was a kid with North Central Washington was picking apples with my family, at a very young age.

00:03:15:29 - 00:03:37:14
Terry Ward
And that was kind of the experience that I had. So it was kind of a family affair. We all just kind of traveled around and we did the thing, and my mom would often leave for a couple of weeks at a time, left my older brother in charge, who's eight years older than me. So you can imagine a 12 year old in charge of a four year old, four year old, an eight year old and a ten year old.

00:03:37:14 - 00:04:08:04
Terry Ward
Right. Because they were all stair step before me and so would leave us at home and would go find, work and then come back and get us. And sometimes it'd be up to two weeks at a time. We'd be kind of fending for ourselves and doing our own thing. And often food insecurity was a problem. And so that's really why with a lot of what we do at Word Media, I really focus on how can we tell those stories and amplify those voices to help other families and help the organizations that are helping families like mine when I grew up.

00:04:08:10 - 00:04:30:11
David Mabee
Yeah, that's that's insane, man. Sorry you had to go through that. So all that moving frequently and instability, how does that affected, like, your, your family and like you? I mean, you were the youngest, so I imagine, like, your experience is way different than, like, your oldest brother, but, like, how is that, like, journey transformed you?

00:04:30:13 - 00:04:54:16
Terry Ward
Yeah. So I, you know, thankful to my older brother. My brother, ultimately got us out of that situation. He got, me graduated high school, joined the Navy, and then he took the family moving around with him. And, you know, because he had, some stable pay and, kind of helped get us on our feet. So my experience being eight years younger was quite different, right?

00:04:54:16 - 00:05:11:17
Terry Ward
Most of the instability ended by the time I got into middle school. Most of it was when I was younger. But all of that kind of stuck with me. And so I really walked around in those younger years with a chip on my shoulder, feeling like, you know, I was just kind of destined not to do much.

00:05:11:17 - 00:05:43:03
Terry Ward
And then my brother joined the Navy and spent his six years in the Navy. And by that point I was in, high school, and he took a job at our hometown newspaper back in Oklahoma, where we were from selling advertising and doing marketing for for clients. After he finished the Navy and we moved back there. And that's ultimately kind of how I ended up in this business is the local newspaper publisher called me up one day and said, hey, Tara, I'd like to offer you a job as a I was a junior in high school.

00:05:43:03 - 00:06:07:24
Terry Ward
What I wanted to offer me a job as a newspaper reporter and kind of took me under his wing and, and saw a kid that maybe needed some, older male guidance. And, was my mentor up until the day that he died. That's insane. That that that power of, mentorship is just, like, crazy like that. Somebody saw something in you and then, like, took it upon themselves.

00:06:08:00 - 00:06:21:17
David Mabee
That was going to be like. My question is, like what? What guided you into, journalism? And then you just kind of answered it there, but was there anything before that like that sparked an interest? I mean, were you writing any of these stories as you're going along, or are you just a kid trying to figure out how to get by?

00:06:21:17 - 00:06:37:09
Terry Ward
And then once you got into the, internship as a, as a junior in high school, did that, that was that where the spark kind of came? Yeah. So my younger years, it was just survival, right? A survival instinct trying to figure out where the next meal was going to come, whether or not I was even going to make it through school.

00:06:37:10 - 00:06:53:23
Terry Ward
Right. You go to you know, three dozen schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. I was always the new kid. That's really why I had a chip on my shoulder. You know, as the new kid, people weren't as embracing as maybe they could have been. And so really, you know, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life.

00:06:53:23 - 00:07:17:12
Terry Ward
You know, I was good at arguing. So I thought, well, maybe I'll become an attorney if I could never go to college or something like that. And then, once I started off as a junior in high school, kind of writing, going to the police station early in the morning, getting a police report, doing some writing, typing those up, covering eight man football for the high school in, in rural towns in Oklahoma.

00:07:17:15 - 00:07:37:02
Terry Ward
You know, before and after school, I really kind of got a passion for journalism at that point and for the media business as a whole. Right. It was a small newspaper in a town that that was roughly, I would say, the size of East Wenatchee, was kind of the size of the town. The newspaper was a small newspaper.

00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:08
Terry Ward
And so it really gave me a chance to do a lot of things. And, and the publisher that mentored me took me under his wing, moved me around in different departments over a couple of years after I graduated high school and went into the Army for a little bit, went back to work for my hometown newspaper, and then, he ultimately gave me my first management job.

00:07:58:15 - 00:08:21:14
Terry Ward
I was pretty young as a manager. I feel sorry for those people today because I wasn't anywhere near prepared to be a leader at that time, but it taught me a lot. And then he finally got got a of me one day and said, okay, you're ready to go do something else. And, called up somebody who needed a, a manager at one of their newspapers, to manage a department.

00:08:21:14 - 00:08:43:03
Terry Ward
And it was kind of like a, a sporting team trade, right? I was like, okay, you have him now. And so sent me off to go work for somebody besides him. And then that kind of how my career started, went on to be a, general manager of a newspaper by the time I was 28 years old and and kind of responsible for the whole operation and kind of done that ever since.

00:08:43:03 - 00:09:11:17
Terry Ward
For some large companies, the largest local media company in, in the US and the largest in Washington state, had been a CEO of a regional media company in Indiana before I moved to Washington state ten years ago. That's crazy. So, that seems like that mentorship was just crucial there. Like your career path, and amazing on him to, like, not, try to hold you back because you're doing something good for him.

00:09:11:19 - 00:09:38:03
Terry Ward
But to see that he could move you forward and make your life even better. So, man, how did that how does that experience changed you as a leader and kind of the father that you are today? Then? Yeah. So it really, I think it kind of set me up for, for good leadership moving forward. Right. It's it's why if you read the bylines in our newspapers, we have a high school intern up in Cascade High School that writes for us today.

00:09:38:06 - 00:10:04:15
Terry Ward
We've had a lot of young people that have worked for me throughout the years, because I believe if somebody has a spark and a passion, they should be a mentor, they should be guided and you should give them a chance. And so we've got a young staff, from young staff members that work for us today. And I believe that if you give people a chance and you're willing to invest that time and coach them, I believe everybody in the business world should have a mentor and they should be a mentor.

00:10:04:15 - 00:10:29:18
Terry Ward
They should have somebody who's investing in their life, and they should be investing in somebody else's life. To kind of help pay that forward is kind of a hand up, not a handout. Yeah. And so if we do that more in, in, in, in the business world, I think that it helps set people up for success. And we have to be willing to take the time to slow down, listen and coach to the person, not necessarily to the position.

00:10:29:20 - 00:10:51:13
David Mabee
That's amazing. That's that's crazy. That's good advice. So as you as you were rising up in the ranks thinking of of of your trajectory path, did the, the, the bigger corporations do that? Just feel off to you or I what what was that kind of like the drawback to coming back to the small towns. So you got to remember, I, I kind of grew up in this business.

00:10:51:13 - 00:11:18:16
Terry Ward
I saw the heyday of when newspapers were just the, the, the king of the block. Right. That's what they had. All the ad revenue. They had high circulation numbers. And, we're doing pretty well until, you know, late 1990s, early 2000s. We began to see, kind of a shift in that. And, and the real shift came through, venture capitalist firms, starting to find out that newspapers were a good investment.

00:11:18:16 - 00:11:37:13
Terry Ward
So they started buying up local newspapers all over the US. And that's really where you begin to see some of these really mega, you know, media companies come about. But what they were doing is, you know, I believe they were strip mining those operations. So they were taking the resources out, taking the profit out and not reinvesting in them.

00:11:37:16 - 00:12:01:10
Terry Ward
Right. And so I talked to a lot of groups and the biggest thing that I get asked a lot is, you know, you know, how has the internet, in the digital age, affected newspapers? The biggest effect on newspapers happened before the digital age really came into full gear, before social media, before Facebook. All of that really started to take a beating based on the lack of resources with these large companies.

00:12:01:10 - 00:12:21:23
Terry Ward
So I was guilty of that. I was an executive with, a large nationwide media company, and I would go in and work with my local publishers that ran these newspapers and have them cut expenses. We'd shut down press operations probably when we didn't need to, but we were doing it so we could maintain 40 and 50% profit margins.

00:12:21:25 - 00:12:40:02
Terry Ward
Right. And so as we were doing that, it felt a little bit criminal. And so I went through all of that in my career. And so when Amy and I decided we were going to launch toward media and we were going to buy some newspapers, here in north central Washington, we we said we were going to do it the right way.

00:12:40:04 - 00:13:04:01
Terry Ward
These were newspapers that were struggling, that didn't have a lot of resources. So we started investing some resources back into them, you know, hiring some reporters where some reporters didn't exist. You know, they're still small newspapers, but we believe that our other business units that we run beside the newspapers can continue to prop those up because, one, we want to make sure that there's not that news deserts that exist.

00:13:04:01 - 00:13:25:19
Terry Ward
And we want to make sure that, local journalism is there to tell the stories and chronicle the history. Like what? We would expect them to do, you know, with the internet, while we're very digitally focused in what we do, we also know how easily that history can be changed. Right? Right. Or if a website shuts down, where does that history go?

00:13:25:19 - 00:13:45:12
Terry Ward
We're in on the print side of the business. If you go to a, historical society or genealogical society, first thing they do is show you the old newspaper clippings where you can find information about your grandparents or old businesses that were in town and things like that. So we want to maintain that record for these communities. Yeah.

00:13:45:12 - 00:14:05:19
David Mabee
I was a broadcast journalism student at central. So I, had projects where we had to go back through the reels of newspapers. We did, our I was day myself here early 2000. And so we had technology to make editing easier. But our, professor was old school, so we had to go do real the real edits for the for the broadcast and all that stuff.

00:14:05:19 - 00:14:12:16
Terry Ward
So I appreciate all the, the legacy and trying to keep everything there, but also respect the future of it.

00:14:12:16 - 00:14:23:07
David Mabee
So as you and, Amy are starting Word Media, what was there a key? Was it was it like, hey, let's go to North Central Washington? What was the arc of like starting where? Media. Where did you guys start?

00:14:23:07 - 00:14:45:02
Terry Ward
And then how did you get to where you are at this present moment? So I was the vice president of Sound Publishing. Sound publishing owns 40 some odd newspapers across across Washington state, mostly along the I-5 corridor and the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsula. And the islands would be San Juan Islands, Bainbridge Island, that area. So I oversaw everything west.

00:14:45:05 - 00:15:09:09
Terry Ward
And so, having done that, I was like, okay, it's time for us to kind of branch out. So Amy was a little more reluctant. She was a marketing, director for a public hospital. And, somehow I convinced her to venture out and do this with me. Right. She was more of on the marketing side. She was a client of the of the company that I worked for.

00:15:09:09 - 00:15:37:02
Terry Ward
She did a lot of advertising and marketing, but she also saw the vision of how do we, make this better? How do we do something that's our own, that we can kind of make an impact and help amplify voices and tell stories right in the area. So we we did that. And so the catalyst for me was, coming out of Covid, you know, a lot was shut down, went through a lot of expense reductions at my former company, and I was just tired.

00:15:37:02 - 00:15:52:13
Terry Ward
And I was like, okay, if I could do this myself without somebody else owning it, how would I do it differently? And I had a lot of great ideas. Some of them are are still great ideas. Some of them I realized, oh, okay, I need to kind of pivot and do some things a little bit differently than what I thought.

00:15:52:16 - 00:16:16:20
Terry Ward
And so as we kind of ventured out and we were looking for some, newspapers to acquire, and we wanted them to be fairly close in good communities that still believed in local journalism and that we felt like we could have an impact. So we looked at some in Oregon, we looked at some others in Washington state. And ultimately these made a lot of sense for us because of just the region that there at.

00:16:16:20 - 00:16:37:10
Terry Ward
I mean, you can't you can't beat the tourist region that that, you know, is Chelan and Leavenworth and, and those areas. But you also we also wanted something that because we, we still have kids in school that we wanted to be able to get over there. So we still split our time back and forth between north central Washington and Kitsap County over in in the Poulsbo area.

00:16:37:10 - 00:16:54:04
Terry Ward
Okay. And so a half hour week over there and half hour week over here. Because we do we as we launched this, we also this last year launched a magazine in Kitsap County for our business magazine. And so we have that and then we have all of our stuff over in north central Washington as well.

00:16:54:04 - 00:17:02:07
David Mabee
Well, what was, like the scariest part of, like, deciding, okay, we're doing this and then, like, no paychecks coming in, or did one of you guys keep a job?

00:17:02:07 - 00:17:32:01
Terry Ward
Well, what was the transition like? No, we talked about it and we decided to both of us jump in with both feet. So we we invested in this ourselves. And we decided what we wanted to do is just we could ramp up quicker if we used her talents and my talents at the same time. While I've been in the newspaper business a long time, Amy brings a lot of local business sales and marketing expertise to ward media as well, and she's been able to really work with a lot of our clients.

00:17:32:01 - 00:17:53:27
Terry Ward
So in order to make it work, we thought, let's just both of us jump in, let's do it. The scariest part is just that we jumped without a safety net. We didn't, have one foot in and one foot out. We just decided, hey, we're going to make this transition. We're going to make this jump. And, no other option than to make it work.

00:17:53:29 - 00:18:06:13
Terry Ward
Yeah. And I, I don't know, I've, I've talked to a lot of people that are successful and it seems like that's the route like you don't put a plan B in because if you put a plan B in, you usually fall back to plan B. It's just like, just go for it.

00:18:06:13 - 00:18:13:16
David Mabee
So, Terry, with Word Media, how are you doing things differently than than the other, traditional outlets? What?

00:18:13:16 - 00:18:29:24
David Mabee
Is there something different you're focusing on, or what's the what's the purpose there, for your strategy? Yeah. So we try to focus a little bit different. You know, we don't focus so much on the negative news, the bad news, the the crime. We do some of that. If there's a murder, if there's, a break in.

00:18:29:29 - 00:18:49:27
Terry Ward
Break in a car accident, we will publish some of that. But really, what we try to focus on is the amplifying the voices and the good works of the nonprofits and the local business community and and the people aspect of it. Right. What are they doing to kind of help uplift their communities? And we want to help. We want to tell those stories because those stories are worth telling.

00:18:50:05 - 00:19:13:23
Terry Ward
So as we look at that, we try to think about, you know, whether it's, it's, Upper Valley men, the Pybus Foundation, you know, the, the community foundation, even the good work that that NCW Tech Alliance is doing. Right. We want to amplify those voices and tell people all of that good work, because when you think about it in that terms, a lot of media companies will focus on, okay, they need that.

00:19:13:23 - 00:19:35:09
Terry Ward
They need to pay for advertising to do that. Well, we want the advertising and we need the advertising to continue to fund our operations. For us, it's really important to focus on the good works. I try to write a column on a regular basis. When I write my columns, I focus on how do we unite these communities together, not be politically divided, and not focus on things to tear the community down?

00:19:35:09 - 00:20:11:00
Terry Ward
I've seen a lot of newspaper editors and a lot of newspaper publishers that will write columns, and they're just looking for things to criticize communities about. And the same thing on the news side, often you'll see how can we sensationalize the negative things that are happening in the community? Because that's what a lot of people read. And while we see that when we can track things on our NCW news site, we can see the traffic spike when we have some kind of tragic accident or some kind of a murder or a crime that somebody was arrested for vandalism.

00:20:11:00 - 00:20:29:06
Terry Ward
We see more traffic on those stories, but those aren't the stories that I believe resonate with the lion's share of our readers. Those are passive readers coming in because they see a sensational headline and they want to follow it. Right. So we focus on the things that we think will help uplift and amplify those voices of what people are doing in the community.

00:20:29:09 - 00:20:48:08
Terry Ward
So it seems like those kind of stories seem like clickbait to me. Like you'll go there, but I probably would never go back to that website again. Or so you're trying to build readership viewership and clicks through being, creating a specific standard that you want to see upheld through positivity and things like that. Is that is it fair assessment?

00:20:48:08 - 00:21:10:29
Terry Ward
We're trying to build community by building up the community. Yeah. It happens. Yeah, yeah. Which is refreshing because everything nowadays is seem to be trying to tear us all apart. So thank you for that. What would you describe or what do you look at when you're looking as you're defining success? What is what is success mean to you and to ward media?

00:21:11:01 - 00:21:40:11
Terry Ward
Up until now and then looking into the future. So, you know, when you think about it, you know, success for us is the sustainability, sustainability of the local news ecosystem, the local business ecosystem. I believe that what we do has such an impact on communities, and we do it on both sides of the business, right? When we think about the news and information that we provide, if we're doing our job effectively, it's going to have a positive, uplifting impact on these communities.

00:21:40:11 - 00:21:59:18
Terry Ward
When people search Leavenworth and, you know, for for anything, you know, the positive things are going to come up when they search Wenatchee or East Wenatchee or Kashmir. It's the positive things that they'll find on our site. And if we can uplift the community and we can have a positive impact. I sleep pretty good. Yeah, we're still the watchdog journalists.

00:21:59:18 - 00:22:21:17
Terry Ward
We still want to hold our our public officials and our local governments accountable for what they're doing. But there's more to it than that. It's trying to drive that positive nature. We're not a mouthpiece for folks, but I think it's our job to make sure that we're highlighting those positive things. So there's that side of the business, and I sleep pretty well at night knowing the impact we can have there.

00:22:21:20 - 00:22:45:01
Terry Ward
Then there's the business side, right where if local businesses are marketing their themselves through the pages or through the online or through the digital offerings that we offer through word Media, or even to the swag business that we have, hopefully if we're doing the our job right, they're going to get results. And that was a result mean that they're going to be able to keep more people employed in the communities.

00:22:45:03 - 00:23:14:20
Terry Ward
They're going to be able to make sure their business has a longer, lifetime. They're going to be able to stay in business for a long time, and they're going to be able to contribute to the economic well-being. And so the economic impact that I believe local media has on our local communities, it's immeasurable, right. Because if we do right by our clients, then their businesses are going to continue to branch out and it's just going to continue to multiply.

00:23:14:20 - 00:23:40:12
Terry Ward
And that is going to stay local. And that's why we say that, you know, we're we're a local independent company, right? We we spend our money locally, right? We we we do our things that we can locally. We hire local people and we're there all the time on a regular basis. Even though like I said earlier, we do split our time between the evil West side and, north central Washington.

00:23:40:18 - 00:24:02:01
Terry Ward
We also, though we're invested in the communities that we serve. And that's important, especially the independent, because we don't own newspapers in ten states we own. What we have is right here in north central Washington, and that means that we want to make an economic impact, and we want to make a, we want to give the community a little bit of an attitude adjustment.

00:24:02:01 - 00:24:18:21
Terry Ward
Let's think a little bit more positive and focus on the good things that are happening in life. Yeah. That's awesome. And and I do. I see you guys at a lot of our events. You guys were just at flywheel, last week. Yeah. Did you guys have a good time at flywheel? Did you did you take away, any inspiration or, anything there for from that experience?

00:24:18:21 - 00:24:47:18
Terry Ward
Yeah, it was a great event. You know, there was a there was a segment where where, one of the Western Washington University, a person she was talking about, Meg was talking about the, imposter syndrome. And, you know, and when I that afternoon, I had to go back to her office there in Wenatchee, and one of my reporters came in and actually asked me that same afternoon, right after I sat in that session and said, give me advice on how to how to, you know, deal with.

00:24:47:18 - 00:25:15:18
Terry Ward
And she said, the imposter syndrome. I feel like sometimes when I'm interviewing people that I like, I'm a little bit of an imposter now. So I was able to just share with her that you're not alone. Right. And, and quote some of the statistics that were talked about at flywheel and was able to within two hours, took what I learned and heard into action with one of my team members, which was fantastic, which actually, you know, did me a favor, made me seem a little bit smarter than maybe I am.

00:25:15:21 - 00:25:31:19
David Mabee
That's that's what that's what it's all about, right? I mean, in the grand scheme of things, we're all imposters at some point. Like. Exactly. It's just what it is. And even as we get older, like, I think as you get older, you realize that more and more that even the stuff, you know, there's more stuff you don't know.

00:25:31:19 - 00:25:51:21
Terry Ward
So exactly. Always learning, always learning. So all right, we're we're flying through the episode. So we're going to just going to kind of get into our segment here where we ask you some questions for inspiring, investing and empowering our community. So what's one piece of advice you'd give to someone thinking about starting a business, or a new chapter in their life?

00:25:51:23 - 00:26:14:11
Terry Ward
I would say, don't give up and do it stark. Right. I wish I would have did this ten, 15 years ago. It's hard. It's probably I'm working harder than I've ever worked in my life, and I was working pretty hard for a lot of other people and and making a lot of money for, for a lot of companies.

00:26:14:14 - 00:26:37:12
Terry Ward
And so when I look at it right now, it's, it's hard. And there are days that you just want to go, oh man, why did I sign up for. So for somebody just starting out I would say do it. Do it fast. Do it today instead of tomorrow. And then as you're doing it, just have the fortitude to stick with it, have a vision and aim for that vision and keep going.

00:26:37:15 - 00:26:58:28
Terry Ward
Yeah, this has been a common theme with this question. It's it's like, there's no right time to do anything, right? You don't. You're always waiting for the right time to do something. But like with kids, like anything like that, everything's going to change. Everything's going to happen. There's certain stuff you can't control. And as you get older, you realize that life is short and things are going to happen and you don't want to miss out on any of that stuff.

00:26:59:00 - 00:27:21:19
David Mabee
On the investing part, what's, one skill you're still trying to master as, as a business owner, I would say the biggest skill that I'm trying to master is, you know, you get you get to the point in your career where you you've seen a lot, you know, a lot, and you make a lot of decisions based on that history and that information that you've gathered over the years.

00:27:21:19 - 00:27:46:01
Terry Ward
Right? So it's kind of that gut. So a lot of times where one of our team members will come in and they'll have a question and I can nine times out of ten, anticipate what they're going to ask and already have the answer. I still am learning to slow down, be more present, and listen. We're running so fast that sometimes I just want to answer the question and just move on.

00:27:46:01 - 00:28:14:26
Terry Ward
And what people need, they need that time. And maybe it's not so much about the question, it's about the time that they can spend with me, right time spent with me to learn more about it. And one question may lead to another. So I I'm still learning how to slow down and be more present and listen fully to read maybe more of what's going on instead of just spitting out an answer to get that moving on to a different direction.

00:28:15:00 - 00:28:31:16
David Mabee
No, it's really powerful. It makes me think, I have a nine year old and a six year old, and it's like they'll come and ask me for questions or come and ask me a question. And it's like something I know they can solve. And I trying to slow down and let them solve it, because that's more powerful than me telling it to them.

00:28:31:18 - 00:28:46:19
Terry Ward
So that's that's good advice. Like, just slow down, let them figure it out and be there to support and guide if needed. That's awesome. Absolutely. So would you say that you were talking a little bit at that about there? About a nine times out of ten you have so much experience. Would you say that's like your superpower?

00:28:46:19 - 00:29:12:03
Terry Ward
You can kind of predict what's what's happening in the newsrooms because you've seen so much of it. Yeah. So, you know, I thought a little bit about that question about what would my superpower be? And I think that, I read people write, part of what you are able to do if you've been in, in the, in the world of journalism long enough is, you know, a lot about, you know, a little about a lot of things.

00:29:12:09 - 00:29:32:29
Terry Ward
And so you because you've had an opportunity to really write stories or edit stories that deal with a lot of topics. And for me, really, when I think about the superpower that has really given me because I've talked to a lot of people, I've talked to folks, I've talked to, presidential candidates, I've talked to presidents, I've talked to, city council members, the average Joe below on the street.

00:29:33:02 - 00:29:56:06
Terry Ward
And really, that gut instinct for me has been able to really learn how to read people pretty quick. And again, it's one of those nine times out of ten, most often I'm pretty right with what my gut instinct of how I read folks. And so that came in handy a lot in this business, whether it's dealing with clients or dealing with, sources or new subjects as well.

00:29:56:09 - 00:30:20:10
David Mabee
Right. That's awesome. So I hope you thought about this one. If Ward media was a reality TV show, do you have a name for us? Oh my goodness. That one I tried to think a little bit on, but that one's a little bit harder because I feel like Ward media is a reality show, right? When you when you think about it because of what we're doing, it would have to be something called, chaos.

00:30:20:13 - 00:30:44:07
Terry Ward
Chaos in the landscape. Right? Because there's so much coming at us at a fast rate, and there's such a beautiful area that we live in, whether it's it's going across Snoqualmie Pass or Blewett Pass or, or driving around Leavenworth or the Wenatchee Valley, Upper Valley, Wenatchee Valley, Chelan Valley, it's a beautiful area, but everything we do, there's no day.

00:30:44:07 - 00:31:15:08
Terry Ward
That's exactly the same. It's just it's just chaos coming at us. And how do we control that chaos? So I would say chaos in the landscape, right? Would be kind of a great reality show. Or we would still somebody else's show and call it naked and afraid. Right. And close enough. And then do you guys have a do you have a favorite local spot that you go to to like, think on things or kind of unwind or I tell you when we're, you know, we like to, you know, we're we have so many meetings and we're over there on, on a regular basis.

00:31:15:08 - 00:31:36:28
Terry Ward
Most of what we're doing, we're going to events, we're at meetings, we're out and about. Meeting folks. Oftentimes one of our favorite places to just get a little bit quiet is, is just walking along the riverside there, right. The trail that, that, that they have right there in Wenatchee along the river. It's been one of the great things.

00:31:36:28 - 00:31:56:25
Terry Ward
We can leave our office, we can walk down past Pybus Market and just go straight past the hotel there and and take a little bit of a stroll. It's quiet. There's not a lot going on. You'll see runners, you'll see people on bikes. But for us, it's a it's a great way. I mean particularly it's a great way for me to recenter.

00:31:56:27 - 00:32:13:13
Terry Ward
You know, Amy's a Washingtonian by native. She says she has to be near water at some point. Yeah. And so that's a great place for us in north central Washington to get to some water pretty quick and just kind of be near it. Yeah. I mean, you got the Columbia River right there, and then it's a 12 mile loop around and you can jog, hike, do all that stuff.

00:32:13:13 - 00:32:27:01
Terry Ward
And then there's parks there. You can stop and sit. It's yeah, it's an amazing place. During the hot times in the summer, we'll take the kids down there after work and just chill out and and to be right on time. Right? We we love, you know, Saddleback. And there's a lot of places that we've gone and we like to go.

00:32:27:01 - 00:32:43:20
Terry Ward
But that one for me has a little bit of a special place because it's it's a place where we can just kind of take a little stroll together and sometimes, you know, it might be between meetings, it might be in the evening, before dinner and give us an opportunity to kind of for us because we run the business together.

00:32:43:27 - 00:33:07:23
Terry Ward
You know, when you, when you're, when you're in business with your partner, those times of connectivity are super important because we're constantly working together. But we have to do some things outside of work as well. Right. You need personal. I mean, yeah, professional and personal connection are completely different. So I get that. So how could somebody get in contact with you or where's the best place to see all your newspapers?

00:33:07:25 - 00:33:33:28
David Mabee
Best place for anybody to find word media. Absolutely. So the best place to see any of the news that we will report is in KW news, local website, covers, Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, all of the, north central Washington area up that consist of all our newspapers. Best way to reach me is just Terry Troy at War Dot media.

00:33:33:28 - 00:33:51:04
Terry Ward
If you've got a news release, you can send it to News at War Dot media. And there's so many ways of getting a hold of us. And all of our contact information is on in KW news as well. And we find people don't hesitate to reach out when they want something when you're in the news business, that's for sure.

00:33:51:06 - 00:34:10:21
David Mabee
That's right. Well, Terry, thank you for sharing your story and for reminding us that leadership often grows out of adversity from over coming early struggles to becoming a driving force behind local journalism in north central Washington. Your journey reflects what so many entrepreneurs experience, but rarely talk about the long road, the pivots, the passion and the persistence.

00:34:10:24 - 00:34:34:28
Terry Ward
With Ward media now owning and operating all these newspapers, you're just preserving local news and, revitalizing it. So thank you to our listeners. Oh, yeah. We get the crowd clapping there for you again, to our listeners, if today's episode moved you make sure to follow and subscribe network to, podcast on YouTube, Spotify Anywhere added to your Spotify playlist.

00:34:34:28 - 00:34:56:19
David Mabee
Help us out there. Share it with someone who could use a little inspiration to start their next chapter. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time on Networked.