William Stacey Cowles

Stacey Cowles is the publisher of The Spokesman-Review and president of Cowles Company, a family-owned, Spokane-based firm engaged in print and electronic media, newsprint manufacturing, forestry, insurance sales, real estate development and growth capital investment. The Spokesman-Review is the Inland Northwest’s leading news and information organization, serving 250,000 readers across Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Stacey is past chair of the Washington (State) Business Roundtable. He serves on the boards of The Associated Press, the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association and Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington. He is a former board member of the Newspaper Association of America, Idaho Allied Daily Newspapers and the Independent Newspaper Group. He is a board member and founding chair of the Downtown Spokane Partnership. He serves on the executive boards of Inland Northwest Council, Boy Scouts of America and Greater Spokane Incorporated. He chairs the steering committee for the Washington State University Spokane Applied Sciences Lab and serves on the board of the Spokane Good Roads Association. He formerly served on the boards of Northwest Venture Associates and is a former board member of ABARTA, a Pittsburgh-based family company that owns The Press of Atlantic City.

He is a trustee of the Harriet Cheney Cowles Foundation, a Company-supported foundation that supports capital projects for civic and educational advancement in the Spokane region.

Cowles Company subsidiaries include Inland Empire Paper Company, KHQ-TV (NBC affiliate stations in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Yakima and various affiliates in Salinas and Santa Maria, CA), Centennial Properties, River Park Square and Western Farmer Stockman insurance.

Stacey joined The Spokesman-Review in 1989 as assistant to the marketing director. He succeeded his father as publisher May 1, 1992.

Prior to joining Cowles Company, Stacey served two years as a news writer for the Associated Press London Bureau and three years in the Merger & Acquisition Department of KPMG Peat Marwick in New York City.

He holds a BA in Economics from Yale College and an MBA from the Columbia University School of Business. He and his wife Anne are the parents of John, 20 and Margaret, 18.