The Wenatchee Daily World Archive

The Wenatchee Daily World was founded in 1905 by C.A. Briggs and Nat Ament, as a Republican paper. The paper was the town’s first daily newspaper and initially consisted of four pages.

In 1907, Briggs and Ament sold the ailing paper after threats were made on their lives over their anti-saloon stances. Rufus Woods, who had previously published the Wenatchee Advance and had written for the Republic, purchased the Daily World with his twin brother Ralph as a silent partner. Woods struggled in the early years because he decided to support the Progressive or “Bull Moose” branch of the Republican Party, and many of his advertisers deserted the paper. Woods relied on creativity and publicity stunts to boost business and canvassed around the state for subscriptions. By 1910, circulation reached 2,700, a six-fold increase since 1907.

The Wenatchee Daily World’s main competitor in its early days was the Republic, especially after the latter became a daily in 1912. On April 30, 1913, the Republic ran an article titled “The Sordid Motives of Our Strumpet Contemporary” in which Woods was described as a “crook, briber, cunning knave, brazen blackmailer, shrewd scoundrel, [and] grinning clown” and which hinted at unsavory rumors about Woods’ financial dealings. The Republic eventually folded in 1914, and Woods and the Daily World prospered. Woods used the paper as a platform to advocate for better roads, mining development, conservation, hydroelectric power, reclamation, local manufacturing, and good government for central Washington. The Wenatchee Daily World is best known for Rufus Woods’ July 18, 1918, editorial arguing that diverting the Columbia River would allow for the irrigation of arid central Washington farmlands, introducing the public to the Grand Coulee dam proposal. Woods and the Wenatchee Daily World were central figures in the 23-year fight to complete the dam. Woods published the paper until his death in 1950, when his son, Wilfred Woods, took over the reins. Wilfred Woods served as publisher until his retirement in 1997, when his son, Rufus G. Woods assumed control of the paper. In 1971, the title was changed to the Wenatchee World which is still published today.