Last month, the Grant County Journal ran its last issue after more than a century of publishing and serving Ephrata and the surrounding area.

The Columbia Basin Herald is committed to ensuring readers in the Grant County seat have strong local news coverage. While we will continue to have coverage of Ephrata, Soap Lake and the surrounding area throughout the week, we’ll dedicate space each Thursday to covering the Ephrata area on the Ephrata Insider page or pages. The amount of coverage will depend on the size of the paper and what is happening in the area.

We’ll still serve the other cities of Grant and Adams counties throughout the week, including on Thursdays. We’ll simply have a bit of dedicated space to the goings-on in Ephrata, including city and county government, Grant County Sheriff’s Office and Ephrata Police Department news and other information.

As part of our efforts to ensure no news desert exists in the Columbia Basin, we invite people living in Ephrata and Soap Lake to give us a try. We’re offering readers in that area a special one-month trial at no cost to them. If you previously subscribed to the Journal, you’ll begin receiving the paper automatically. If you hadn’t subscribed to the Journal, simply call our office at 509-765-4561 and provide us with your name and an Ephrata or Soap Lake address. We’ll get your trial started right away.

To our readers in other cities – we want to assure you that you’re still going to be receiving the best coverage we can provide. Coverage of Ephrata will allow you to see how your city relates to the Grant County seat and will cover some amazing events like this weekend’s car show and important information from county offices that impact you in your home. You’ll even get to see how the Tigers are doing as your students’ teams prepare to face them on the field or court.

Whether you’re in Ephrata, Soap Lake, Coulee City or Ritzville, I invite you to reach out to me and give me any news tips that can help the paper cover the Columbia Basin thoroughly. If you’re concerned about a public policy issue, send me a letter to the editor. For either, simply shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’ll follow up as needed.

Take care of yourselves and stay cool as you’re bringing in the harvest or simply trying to catch that trout. Thank you for your readership.

With appreciation,

R. Hans “Rob” Miller

Managing Editor