the "Portland Oregonian"

I read the “Oregonian” pretty much everyday, primarily because of the easy availability. Although the “Oregonian” is available all over Oregon, I don’t find it to represent all of Oregon very well. The more I read, the less I seem to see places outside the Portland area mentioned. For the month of August, I derived a bit of data to see just how well the entire state was represented. I did not consider the weekly arts and entertainment section, since it is relevant only to Portland, or the sports page because its Oregon inclusions were limited to Portland, Corvallis and Eugene, save minute entries on things such as river fish counts.

Last month the “Oregonian” had roughly 1861 articles. Most of these were of national or international interest, 39.4% and 18% respectively. Another 3% concerned Washington state beyond the Vancouver area, which left 39.6% ostensibly as “Oregon” articles. Concerning those 737 “Oregon” articles, the Portland-area constituted 61% (an area I chose as the highlighted area on the state map: north of Wilsonville, east of Forest Grove, west of Troutdale as well as Vancouver and Camas, Washington). The state capital of Salem had 51 articles (7%). Even heavily populated Eugene had only 7 articles pertaining to them (less than 1%), Springfield had zero. The central Oregon area, including Bend and the Dalles, had just 38 articles (5%). And my own region of eastern Oregon was represented only 17 times (2%).

Luckily, there were a few entries on the last two days of the month that allowed eastern Oregon that 2%. More troubling, of those 17 articles, 2 were the same blotter about Hermiston’s police chief, 2 more about the prison shooting in Ontario, 3 about the police shooting in Elgin and one about the Wallowa marijuana raid. After the Oregonian had given eastern Oregon’s police and crime rate about as positive an image as Portland’s, that left 9 articles. And one of those was reprinted from the NY Times!

I tried to give a benefit of the doubt in counting 69 articles of general statewide interest, although a deeper look would show that most of those dealt with Mark Hatfield, David Wu, Hood to Coast and a few other things mostly relevant to the west side of the state. Of those “statewide” articles, only two even acknowledged the existence of places in eastern Oregon; a reference to a National Guard woman from Milton-Freewater and one-line mentioning a Greg Walden townhall meeting in Heppner. Not only were the articles mainly relevant to Portland, but only Portland area businesses seem to find it useful to advertise and community calendars only feature local Portland events. I venture to guess that a good part of the reason Portlanders don’t realize things such as the fact that it doesn’t rain in eastern Oregon can be attributed somewhat to the “Oregonian” never writing about eastern Oregon.

In principle, the focus on Portland doesn’t bother me. I do love Portland and am happy it is such a nice place and that the paper has so much to report on. What bothers me is the illusion presented by calling the paper the "Oregonian” and the heavy distribution around the state. In other parts of the state, we have only so much interest in Portland events, restaurants, shops and such that we can’t go to. Other parts of Oregon do, of course, have their own newspapers, such as The Observer in La Grande and The East Oregonian in Pendleton, which publish few articles related to the west side. However, these other papers with such a specifically focused area are only available in the relevant areas. In my home state of Missouri, we don’t have a “Missourian” which pretends to serve the needs of the entire state. Instead, we have more appropriately named papers like the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. So, in considering how little the “Oregonian” considers non-Portlanders, do you think it would be possible to change the name of your paper to the West Oregonian, or perhaps even more appropriately, the Portlandian?

daniel “kid” yoshida
La Grande


Oregonian articles in the month of August, 2011 = (1861)

National (735)
International (334)

Washington state (55)
Seattle (14), Vashon Island, Ballard, Tacoma (3), Oly (8), Lewis-McChord, Neah Bay, Port Angeles, Olympic NP, Bremerton, Shelton, Omak, Tualip, Cape Horn, Longview (2), Long Beach (2), Hubbard, Carson, Eatonville, Battle Ground (2), Goldendale, Skamania Co., Crystal Mountain, Yakima, Richland, Maryhill, Spokane (3), Pullman

Oregon (737)
“statewide” interest (69)

Portland area (450)
Vancouver (20), Camas (2), Portland (340), Beaverton (9), Aloha (3), Hillsboro (15), Cornelius (3), Forest Grove (2), Washington Co. (7), Wilsonville (10), Tigard (3), Tualatin (2), Milwaukee (7), Oregon City (8), Gladstone, Sherwood, West Linn (6), Lake Oswego (2), Fairview, Gresham (7), Troutdale

Outskirts of Portland-area (26)
Newberg, Estacada, Eagle Creek, Molalla (3), Clackamas Co. (4), Clatskanie Co., Westport, St. Helens (2), Banks, Vernonia (2), Warren (2), Gaston, McMinville, Yamhill (3), Willamette River (2)

Coast (34)
Astoria (3), Wheeler, Cannon Beach, Tillamook (2), Lincoln City, Glenden Beach, Yaquina, Newport (5), Seal Rock, Yachats, Florence, Coos Bay, Reedsport (2), Myrtle Point (2), Waldport, Coquille (5), Bandon, Port Orford, Rogue Co., Brookings (2)

West-Central (79)
Salem (51), Monmouth, Silverton (2), Scotts Mills, Mill City, Lebanon, Sweet Home, Albany (5), Corvallis (5), Shedd, Eugene (7), Coburg, Oakridge (2)

Southwest (24)
Klamath Falls (3), Roseburg (3), Tenmile, Medford (6), Jacksonville, Jackson Co., Grants Pass (2), Ashland (2), Selma/Cave Junction, Mrytle Creek, Chiloquin, Douglas Co. (2)

North-Central (14)
Bonneville/Cascade Locks, Mt Hood (5), Hood River (3), The Dalles (5)

Central (24)
Sisters, Bend (8), Warm Springs (4), Wheeler County (2), Madras (3), Terrebonne, Redmond, Prineville, Pelton-Round Butte, Goat Lake/Mt Jefferson, Fossil

East (15)
Morrow Co., Hermiston (2), Pendleton, Elgin (4), Wallowa (2), Canyon City, Imnaha, Ontario (3)

Southeast (2)
Owhyhee basin (from New York Times), Malheur Lake