WHO ARE WE?
THE REEL NEWS (TRN) has roots back into the mid-1980s.
Back then a disgruntled chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU) broke ties and went independent. At that time their monthly newsletter was titled The Sockeye. The Board of Renton TU created and reformed the fishing club, calling themselves the Puget Sound Anglers (PSA).
TRN was then being published independently and becoming a small yet viable tabloid publication recognized in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Since Renton PSA didn’t have a newsletter per se, TRN started carrying their announcements each month and made copies available to all of their members.
TRN grew throughout the Pacific Northwest region, so did PSA. It wasn’t long until three other TU chapters pulled anchor and jumped onboard with PSA and TRN respectively. Each chapter had independent status and a monthly publication mailed to their membership, each with their own message for meetings and events and we supplied complimentary copies. That practice still continues for all of the many clubs wishing to participate.
In addition to complimentary copies mailed to club members, TRN is distributed at all major (and many minor) sporting goods stores and marinas throughout the Pacific Northwest each month. Readers cannot buy the publication, it is FREE and always has been, compliments of our strong advertising base and contributors support.
For nearly four decades we have won many Excellence In Craft contests from the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association (NOWA) and we are members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) also. Staff has sat on Washington States’ Sportfishing Advisory Board as well as other advisory councils throughout the years. We were also the published “voice” for two Gillnet Ban initiatives.
Our masthead states that we report “Outdoor Issues Covering the Greater Pacific Northwest” as well it notes, “Dedicated to providing truthful, precise and accurate communications to the outdoor enthusiasts.” These two statements have helped lead to our survival and successes as we sadly watched many of our brothers-in-competition fall overboard and many of the daily newspapers eliminate fishing and hunting editorial.
We are very proud of our standard monthly featured columns; Columbia River Region, Officers Notebook, Salt Patrol, Fishing Tails with Mark, Pollack’s Pointers, Fishing B.C. (Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia) and more.
More recently, we have hosted fishing adventures to British Columbia, SE Alaska and over twenty groups to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula for an annual fishing extravaganza with 60-plus guests each year.
In addition to being members of NOWA and OWAA we are in association with: Coastal Conservation Association, Fish Northwest, Northwest Marine Trade Association, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, and Puget Sound Anglers.
And with all of that being said, maybe we are the proudest each year when we announce that THE REEL NEWS has again been chosen as required reading at the University of Washington School of Aquatics and Fisheries Sciences.
Who would have thought…
Staff…
James A. Goerg
Publishing Editor, CEO
I’m a native Pacific Northwesterner, born, raised, and graduated from Port Angeles High School on the Olympic Peninsula. After a year at Peninsula Jr. College I moved on to Cornish School of Allied Arts in Seattle.
Due to what I call “life”, after studying fine arts at Cornish it was time to go to work, first as advertising manager for Hygrade Meats Pacific Rim Region and then moving on to same position for sixty IGA Grocery Stores.
In my early 20’s I went out on my own which evolved into a graphics center/print shop/advertising agency conglomeration in King County. Through strong alliances this eventually led to production of THE REEL NEWS.
When I was young in Port Angeles my father owned the only sporting goods store in the county. I often walked there after school and had “important” jobs like rubber-stamping envelopes, making coffee and head-honcho of menial janitorial services.
Dad sold the store in the early 1960’s and worked full-time as a freelance outdoor writer for over 50 publications including Outdoor Life and & Field & Stream. In addition he wrote two books, one specializing in hunting with scoped handguns. To this day Alfred J. Goerg still has a following as the ‘Pioneer of Handgun Hunting’, which was the title of his second book.
So here I am, now an outdoor writer for well over 30 years following in many of my father’s footsteps. Do I come by it honestly or has this ride been a fluke?
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree but it rolled down the hill a little bit.