131-year-old Centralia (WA) Chronicle Sold to Local OwnersBack to News

Centralia, WA – January 4, 2021 – Lafromboise Communications has sold the Centralia (WA) Chronicle to Chad and Coralee Taylor, owners of The Silver Agency in Chehalis, WA. The sale also includes the Nisqually Valley News in Yelm and The Reflector in Battle Ground.

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Lafromboise Communications in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed.

The Lafromboise family had owned the newspaper for 52 years. The transaction means the newspapers will remain a family-owned operation, which owner Jenifer Lafromboise Falcon said was one of the many things that made her comfortable trusting her family’s legacy with the Taylors. The fact that the Taylors live in the community served by The Chronicle also helped drive her decision, she said.

Falcon was the third member of her family to guide the company, following in the footsteps of her father, Richard Lafromboise, and her mother, Jeraldine “Jeri” Lafromboise.

The decision to sell the company off to a new family was difficult to make, Falcon said, but she feels it’s the right decision for the longevity and growth of the newspapers.  She said the Taylors have a “bright vision” for the future of the company.

“I feel like it is just a good fit,” she said. “They want to preserve the legacy of my company, and now it’s going to be their company. We just kept it going.”

Chad and Coralee Taylor said The Chronicle would remain at its location at 321 North Pearl St. in Centralia through a lease agreement with Falcon, who will continue to own the historic building. The Silver Agency and The Chronicle will remain separate companies, but knowledge will be shared to serve the communities at the highest levels.

Chad Taylor will serve as publisher, Coralee Taylor will be the CEO and their son, Franklin Taylor, will be the vice president. The name of the new company is CT Publishing.

They plan to leverage their experience and success in growing The Silver Agency, founded in 1998, to improve the newspapers’ bottom line and bring new options for advertisers and businesses. The agency, which originally specialized in traditional marketing and advertising, has evolved into the digital world and business development, coaching, training, and process implementation.

Chad Taylor, who has been a Chehalis city councilor since 2002, regularly presents on marketing advisory panels for large corporations. Chad and Coralee also advise in the beta testing programs for Google, Facebook, and Instagram in online digital ad placement. They are certified partners for Google/GMB, Bing, Facebook and Instagram.

They said their appreciation of The Chronicle as the primary source of local news for the area and their desire to see it remain viable helped drive their decision to purchase the newspapers. The Taylors said The Chronicle has an essential role in uniting the greater Lewis County area through its coverage. Without a strong local newspaper, the community would risk being defined and served from the outside in, they said.

“The vision is simple, and it’s focused on serving, building on what The Chronicle has already built over the last 131 years,” the Taylors said in a statement.