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Seattle Times publisher and CEO Frank Blethen will step down in 2025

Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen, photographed at the Seattle Times photo studio on June 21, plans to step down next year after four decades leading the newspaper. (Erika Schultz/Seattle Times)
By Paige Cornwell Seattle Times

SEATTLE – The publisher and chief executive officer of the Seattle Times will step down at the end of 2025 after four decades of leading the family-owned company.

Frank Blethen, 79, confirmed his plans Monday in a n interview with the Times. He said he expects to retain his position as board chair of the Seattle Times Co.

The newspaper’s seventh publisher said he hadn’t planned on making a formal public announcement, but he detailed his timeline recently when he met with a group of former Times employees.

“When I got into that room and saw all those faces and people who put so much sweat and tears into the Seattle Times … I think I just sort of got caught up in the moment,” he said, describing the scene at the gathering. “I thought, well, ‘You guys at least need to know that we’re in great shape, and that I’m going to be leaving in a couple years.’ ”

Blethen was named publisher and CEO in 1985 after predecessor Jerry Pennington died in a boat accident. His father was president from 1944 to 1967, and Blethen spent a summer as a Seattle Times copy boy when he was a teenager to get to know him better. Blethen started his Seattle Times career in 1968 as an assistant credit manager.

Blethen led the Times through some of its highs – nine Pulitzer Prizes, including one awarded in 2020 – and its most difficult lows, including the Great Recession and an industrywide contraction.

Alan Fisco, the company’s president and chief financial officer, will be named CEO when Blethen steps down, Blethen wrote in a message to employees sent Monday afternoon.

Blethen declined to share his preference for a successor as publisher, but said he would like it to be a member of the Blethen family. The newspaper has been in the Blethen family since 1896.