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Olympia press-corps loses another voice: Adam Wilson

• Published June 30, 2009

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Statehouse reporter Adam Wilson is headed over to the dark side later this month. He just got hired as Gov. Chris Gregoire's speechwriter, the latest in the Olympia press corps to quit the trade.

I'm happy for the guy and think he deserves a shot at a much better income, even as I say it really sucks for us in the press. In the nearly five years he's worked in The Olympian's Capitol bureau (each of us with his back half-turned to the other in our tiny office), he's gotten pretty good, to say the least. Blog, stories, videos — you name it.

And I've watched Wilson's family grow. He and Heather have two boys who entered the scene since he first arrived in August 2004, fresh from Idaho.

He's done the job most of the time with a sense of humor.

Now a word on the downside. My back-of-the-envelope tally is this leaves the state with about eight full-time Olympia-based journalists to cover the Capitol, less than half what we had a year ago.

Wilson leaves after the worst 12-month stretch I've known in my years in the business. Just since June 2008, we've had three downsizings at the paper. That includes a cut in hourly employees' shifts by 2 ½ hours a week, a 5 percent pay cut for all employees, a freeze of the company's 401(k) match, a freeze of the company's defined benefit pension, and so forth.

Later this fall the survivors look forward to a one-week furlough without pay.

Early word is The Olympian plans to replace Wilson, and that is good. But nobody will replace the guy, the man, the legend.

I have to ask: How long until the Adam Wilson blog becomes a collector's item? If not the blog, don’t you think some of his videos are keepers?