Same family, new owners chart path for Port Townsend Leader

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Annie and Tom Mullen now share ownership in The Port Townsend-Jefferson County Leader with their son, Lloyd and his wife, Karen.

Born in Sioux City, Iowa, Tom Mullen carried papers there when he was 11. Annie was born in Fairmont, Minn. and they met in high school. Tom landed his first writing job working as a copy editor for the Omaha World Herald while in college there.

By the 1990s he was working as a newspaperman in Sioux City, and the two began helping their sons, Jesse, Louie and Lloyd, with a paper route of their own. 

In 1996 the family moved to Newcastle, Wyo. to purchase the paper there.

“Annie worked as a nurse before we purchased our first paper so our boys grew up in this business and yes, we forced them to help out whenever and wherever they could. We didn’t think any of them would want to work in the business as adults but they all circled back around to it and we’re proud of them all,” Tom said. “This is the best industry in the world and I’m happy

to be a part of it.”

Tom and Annie share a vacation home with Lloyd and Karen in Union and they often sail to Port Townsend.

Tom worked as the Operations Manager for Mullen, Stevenson & Hicks Newspapers for more than a decade, training designers, photographers, reporters, sales people and publishers throughout the West.

In addition to Newcastle, Tom and Annie have owned and operated newspapers in Green River and Thermopolis in Wyoming; Philipsburg, Deer Lodge, Glasgow and Havre in Montana; Weiser and Driggs in Idaho, Seaside and Sisters in Oregon; Shelton and Omak in Washington; and in Sioux City