Thanks for visiting our team page. We’re glad you’re interested in us enough to find out who we are. We know that every connection with our neighbors not only helps us do our jobs better, but also helps us learn new ways to better our community.
A little bit about us: we are a newspaper staff with a supportive citizen board of directors. We believe that community newspapers should be resilient, pay a living wage, and make every effort to cover an entire region with fairness, transparency, and inclusiveness.
Learn a little more about each of us below.
Newspaper staff
Kari Mar
Publisher
Kari Mar has deep roots in Skagit County and began her journalism career covering small towns and Native communities. A longtime advocate for the industry, she has worked in newspapers, digital media, and tech while serving in national journalism organizations.
Kie Relyea
Managing editor
Nancy K. Crowell
Photographer
Nancy K. Crowell has lived in La Conner since 2000. Her career in media has included editing and writing for print publications, a brief flirtation with cinematography in Hollywood, a content publishing stint in Tech, and a lifelong passion for photography.
Bill Reynolds
Reporter
La Conner native Bill Reynolds has spent decades in journalism and education, including years as a reporter and editor for local newspapers. After retiring to La Conner in 2017, he continued covering the community he has long called home.
Luisa Loi
Reporter
Emma Storey
Production designer
Joanna Sikes
Sales manager
Winter intern
Board of Directors
Lynn Beebe, President
Lynn Beebe is a retired teacher who continues to work with the youth of the community through science and sewing classes. She enjoys the outdoor life of the Skagit Valley where she has been a resident since 2008. She and her husband live on the Swinomish Indian Reservation along the Salish Sea.
Janie Beasley
Janie Beasley is a Swinomish Indian Tribal Community who serves on multiple Skagit County advisory panels. A former La Conner School Board member, she is known for encouraging young people to pursue education, take chances and return home ready to lead.
Merrill Perlman
Merrill Perlman is a freelance editor, trainer and coach. She was an editor or manager of editors at The New York Times for 25 years, ending as director of copy desks, in charge of the 150-plus copy editors. She trains journalists, students, corporate employees and others to communicate clearly.
Lynda Mapes
Lynda Mapes was a staff reporter at The Seattle Times for 27 years, specializing in coverage of the environment and Indigenous cultures and governments. She is a two-time recipient of the international KAVLI Gold Award for science journalism from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Lynda and two colleagues were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. She has written seven books and won the National Outdoor Book Award and the Washington State Book Award for nonfiction.
Gale Fiege
Lindsay Hughes
Lindsay Hughes delivers La Conner Community News to rural areas east, south and west of town. A retired engineer, economist and data scientist, Lindsay spent 15 years at Microsoft before settling into life in Skagit County. He brings a lifelong connection to local journalism, having worked as a newspaper carrier and later in circulation at the Toronto Star.
Susan Macek
Susan Macek and her husband Dave Buchan moved to the Skagit Valley in 2007. A native of Phoenix, she
graduated with a B.A. in journalism from Arizona State University and received a master’s in non-profit leadership from Seattle University. She served as head of communications and marketing at Seattle Children’s Hospital for 25 years, as development director at Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland for 5 1/2 years, and from 2013-2023, she served as the first executive director of the La Conner Library Foundation and spearheaded the capital campaign for the new La Conner Swinomish Library.