Olympia’s longtime independent, volunteer-run news outlet is returning to print.
Works in Progress relaunched its print edition Friday, Sept. 9, after a three-year hiatus from physical media.
The outlet first began in the 1990s as a project of the Thurston County Rainbow Coalition, a chapter of a national organization established by Jesse Jackson to support his campaigns. The Thurston County publication was primarily focused on grassroots community organizing, and maintained that focus after the Rainbow Coalition dissolved in the early 2000s.
Running once a month through 2022, and then quarterly through 2023, Works in Progress became a local platform for alternative news and independent thinking.
The publication shifted to online-only at the end of 2023, and went on a brief hiatus in late 2025 after its previous managing team stepped down.
At the time, they published an article as a last hope to get new volunteers to take over leading the project.
Friends Arlo Dolven, Maria Bressler and Antonio answered the call and became Works in Progress’ new editorial team.
“We just kind of were like, ‘oh, we have to save the paper,’” Bressler said.
They relaunched Works in Progress online in April 2026, and celebrated the return of the print edition with a launch party and fundraiser on Sept. 9.
“The desire for something that's not just Instagram sound bites, but that's more in depth and off of computer screens is really growing in Olympia … despite the opposite trend of newsrooms getting swallowed up by the internet,” said Antonio.
The editorial team hopes to return to a quarterly print publishing schedule, but that will depend on how much they’re able to fundraise.
That quarterly publication would be heftier than the editions published every two weeks online at www.olywip.org, with sections like book reviews, arts and culture, and more to pad it out.
“It’s something for people to basically hold onto,” said Bressler. “I think that’s what people really loved about the print issue in general.”
Unlike traditional newspapers with dedicated reporters, Works in Progress is an all-volunteer project that publishes community submissions, giving the Olympia community the opportunity to share the news they care about.
“It's organizers, it's activists, it's artists, it's community members wanting a way of expressing itself and expressing what it is thinking about,” said Dolven. “It's not just that we are looking at the world and analyzing it as external figures, but we are actually engaged community members that are taking part in a process of understanding that is bigger than just the paper itself.”
Anyone connected to the South Sound community is invited to volunteer or contribute an article.
Volunteer information and submission guidelines can be found online at https://www.olywip.org/, along with online
Works in Progress is also continuing to collect donations to fund future print editions.
To donate, visit https://tinyurl.com/3xys9m7z
