The West Plains media family has a new member, The West Plains Stream, a monthly newsmagazine that brings community stories and events to the forefront for community members.
Ben and Danica Wick are the owners and publishers of the fresh[1]off-the-press newsmagazine that has sister publications in Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake.
The Wicks are Spokane Valley residents that have a passion for featuring hyper local community stories that are engaging for all ages. But their foray into the publication world was an unexpected venture that began in 2016.
Ben Wick, an East Valley High School graduate, met Danica, a Mead High School graduate, over 20 years ago at the Spokane County Interstate Fair. At the time, Ben was an assistant to the fair coordinator and Danica worked at a family vendor booth. “My family was heavily involved with the fair my entire life,” shares Danica about the past. “The year I met Ben was serendipitous, because it was his last year of being assistant to the fair coordinator and my last year with my family being vendors there and we had never met. Which is crazy because we had spent our whole lives there!”
As a third-generation member of the Spokane Valley whose family is on the pioneer’s list (by being residents of the Washington Territory before the state was formed), Ben has a rich history of being involved in the local community. He has lived in the Spokane Valley his entire life, even while commuting to Eastern Washington University earning his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science.
With his love of Spokane Valley and its community members, it was only natural that Danica would join him in the Valley and make the area their home.
Fast forward to 2016 when Ben was leaving his position as Spokane Valley City Council after successfully serving as an elected City Council Member, and failing to be reelected by 90 votes, he began realizing that the news coverage for the Spokane Valley was lacking. “I was on my way to my last meeting on a local board as an elected official. I ran into one of the reporters for The Current, Craig Howard, and he said ‘Did you know the newspapers are closing’ and so I laughed and said ‘what do I know about owning and running a newspaper? I’m an IT professional and English was my worst subject back in school.’ But I mulled it over thinking a newspaper is a great way to get information out to the community.”
“That night Ben came home and said ‘Hey, honey, what do you think about owning a newspaper?’ Danica continued, “I just told him to go talk to the previous owner. He came home from that meeting having purchased a newspaper. It working out just felt like God was guiding us.”
Ben and Danica decided to jump in feet first to take on both The Greater Spokane Valley Current and The Liberty Lake Splash Newsmagazines just two short weeks after their first meeting with the previous owner. The first edition as owners of the newspapers was January 2016.
“Our communities like to be able to know the owner, talk to the owner, and know that we as the owners are invested in the community,” Danica at the time already had two children, and shortly after acquiring the newspapers, found out she was expecting their third child.
The history of The Current and The Splash is of a news communication that is focused on family friendly coverage of the local communities that they serve, and the Wicks wanted to continue that precedent.
“We wanted to continue the hyper-local community focus. The Splash was the only City Council coverage for the City of Liberty Lake at the time, and we wanted to continue that. In addition to being able to highlight local community members, local high school sports, and local events that deserve to get more promotion.” Ben said.
“We wanted to make sure that each paper had its own identity that was very specific to the community it was serving,” Danica explains about the beginning. “It’s very rare that we run a story in both publications now unless it is a story that pertains to both communities.”
The Splash and the Current maintain their ability to share community stories and connect with the local members who live and work there. Continuing to provide unique and in-depth news coverage on stories that are often overlooked or briefly touched on by other media outlets is a defining trait of the monthly news publications.
The Stream continues to build on its sister-publication’s shoulders and connect local community members and businesses with each other in ways previously unobserved.
“We hope that you enjoy reading the Stream and we would love to hear from you with your thoughts on how we can make this better. We look forward to sharing your story!” Ben will continue in his role as publisher of The Stream.
“The goal of this new publication is to support and enhance the West Plains community. We need partners, so that means if you have a story idea, please reach out to us! We also have marketing opportunities for local businesses as well; just reach out.” Danica is skilled at helping create eye[1]catching advertisements to help small businesses showcase their expertise to the community.
Ben and Danica Wick run their company while raising their four young children.
Q: How did the idea of launching The Stream come about?
B: Serving on the Spokane Valley City Council, I had the opportunity to work with the City of Airway Heights council members and city manager who would say that they see our other publications and ask how do we start or get something started in our community? There were a lot of conversations with different people and then last year we had the former editor of the Cheney Free Press reach out and want to help write for The Splash and The Current. Seeing his knowledge base of the West Plains area, we thought it was another God moment. The West Plains is growing so quickly, similar to Liberty Lake having its own identity and Spokane Valley having its own identity, the West Plains has its own as well, and we want to honor that by sharing more of the local stories.
Q: How are you going to continue with the hyper community-based stories while living in the Spokane Valley?
B: We have some connections to the West Plains, I am an Eastern Washington University alumni, served as an honorary commander at Fairchild, and worked for a number of years at Goodrich Aerospace (now Collins) just off of the Medical Lake I90 exit. But Spokane Valley isn’t all that far away, we like getting involved in the communities we serve, we have already joined the West Plains Chamber of Commerce and I am a part of the Kiwanis service organization. However its not all just about us, we have a great team of contributing writers that live in the West Plains who are also connected to the community and excited to expand their contributions to the paper.
D: It’s also about connections to community partners and we’ve done a really good job of talking to people in Airway Heights and Medical Lake and the other local community groups. And we will continue to get involved and be open and available to the community in order to share their stories.
Q: The Splash and the Current have different content from other local papers. There is a section for kids, seniors in the area, and more. What will The Stream model look like after this first edition?
D: It will look very much like that. There will be kid features, new business features, business profiles sections, a local sports sections, City Council coverage, and I think it will be a similar template to the Splash and the Current. The template and model that we’ve used does really well highlighting the different facets of the community and allows us to touch on them in each edition. We want to make sure that we are highlighting the multiple facets of the culture out in the West Plains.
B: But we are also open to suggestions from the community. The Senior section came from a business who wanted to see that content and we added it. If the community wants to see something different, please reach out. We’re not locked in. We want this to be your paper, and we’re in this together.
Q: How did you come up with the name ‘The Stream’?
B: It’s a little bit of a play on words! When we took over the papers there was a water theme already going for the names in the papers. The Splash, the Current, a section called the wave, so we played with that and came up with the Stream because a stream can be from a plane too which integrates the airport and Air Force base which is a large part of the community.
D: It’s a double entendre there! It’s both water themed and flight themed which seemed perfect for the area!
Q: The West Plains is unique in that it supports four different cities. How will the coverage look?
B: Right now, we don’t want to bite off too much, so we are focused on the Airway Heights and Medical Lake area. As we get more established into the community, we’re open to the idea of expanding to include Cheney.
Q: What excites you about expanding to another community in the area?
B: Being able to provide community coverage. There is a real sense of community in the Medical Lake and Airway Heights area and great things are happening that deserve to be shared more. Not to mention the Air Force Base and with the constant turnover of personnel how do we introduce and connect them with the community and vice versa.
D: What has been the most rewarding thing about owning The Splash and The Current is sharing stories that normally wouldn’t get shared. I’m excited to get to do that for West Plains to show who they really are.
Q: The Spokane Valley Current and the Liberty Lake Splash are both free publications. Will the Stream be free as well?
B: Absolutely! It will be free. In addition to the direct mailing option, we are looking for local businesses to be pick up locations; to host a rack and be a distribution location. We have about 150 pick up locations for each of our other publications and will be looking to do the same here. If you live outside of our direct mailing locations and would like to have it mailed to your house, we offer a subscription service. Subscriptions can also be found on the website. www.westplainsstream.com
Q: When will the Stream be available?
D: Publication is once a month, mid-month around the 15th. If you are reading this then you have the first edition. We hope you like it!
