Deadline calls for retiring publisher

After putting out nearly 1,500 weekly issues without fail, Gary Nevan can soon stop worrying about deadlines.

The publisher and owner of the Columbia Press since his 32nd birthday in 1988, Nevan, now 60, is handing the keys to the newspaper in January to Cindy Yingst, a veteran former reporter and editor from Southern California who once served as managing editor of The Daily Astorian, and her husband D.B. Lewis.

Nevan, who studied journalism at Western Washington University, first cut his teeth as an intern at the small community newspaper Voice of the Valley in Maple Valley, Washington.