My two new bosses, Kari Mar and Staci Baird, were news hounds from the start.
Kari’s family goes back four generations in Skagit County, though she grew up in Seattle where she fell in love with newspapers and started working on her school newspapers in the fourth grade.
Kari studied journalism at West Washington University and became a reporter for Kitsap County weeklies at age 20. At 24, she started working for the Bellingham Herald, covering small towns and tribal nations. In 2004, she began managing the Seattle Times website.
In need of a bigger paycheck than journalism could offer, she left newspapering for technology consulting to build applications for Fortune 500 companies. She managed teams of engineers around the world.
Kari directed a short film about Microsoft technology in Singapore about the “office building of the future” which was three minutes long. “My heart was in journalism,” she said, and promised herself that she would do journalism again when her kids were up and out of the house.
Kari and Staci met at the Washington State Newspaper Association in October of 2023. Kari was exploring buying the La Conner Weekly News then, an endeavor she eventually gave up on. She and Staci talked often about what they would do if they ran a newspaper.
Staci grew up in Kansas and began her journalism career as a reporter for her junior high school newspaper. She was also assistant editor of her high school newspaper and yearbook.
After dropping out of college, she took a job selling computers and became interested in technology. She soon began a career in technical support and was offered a job in Seattle with a startup. Then, she worked for the USPS Seattle District Information Technology department. She eventually finished her undergraduate degree through the University of Phoenix, which offered in-person classes in Seattle. A desire to be closer to family led Staci to return to Kansas for grad school at the University of Kansas. She worked in the journalism department and helped launch the school’s multimedia newsroom.
She moved to New York at age 32 to work for MSN Money, leading a team of multimedia reporters. Her boyfriend (now husband) was offered a job with a startup in San Francisco, so they relocated to the West Coast. She got a job working for LucasArts (the video game division of Lucasfilm).
Staci and her family moved to Washington state during the pandemic. She and her husband have always loved visiting the PNW. Staci taught at Whatcom Community College and advised the student newspaper before joining Cascadia Daily News as managing editor in January 2023. She moved into the role of general manager in April 2023 and built the business office team.
Kari and Staci leapt at the opportunity to make a big impact in local media, bringing to life the vision and mission they’re both deeply passionate about.
Mel Damski: mel@laconnercommunitynews.org. Mel is a general assignment reporter and writes “If I ran the zoo,” an award-winning column that has graced the pages of three La Conner community weeklies.
