Ben and Danica Wick have launched The West Plains Stream, the third community news publication owned by the Spokane Valley City Council member and his wife.

“The West Plains has been growing pretty significantly,” says Ben Wick, who is the publisher of the three newspapers.

The West Plains Stream, which publishes monthly, provides coverage of city council news, new businesses and nonprofits, high school sports, education, and other community news in the West Plains area, including Airway Heights, Medical Lake, and Fairchild Air Force Base.

He says community news had been lacking in the West Plains.

The Wicks also own the Spokane Valley Current and the Liberty Lake Splash, both of which they acquired about eight years ago after Ben Wick lost a Valley City Council reelection bid by 90 votes.

“That year, there were no candidate forms for city council candidates. There was nobody really covering what the city council was doing,” he says.

Wick wanted to find a way to get the word out about what’s going on at Spokane Valley City Hall. Then, he found out the Spokane Valley Current and Liberty Lake Splash were about to close.

“Two weeks later, we ended up purchasing the newspapers and changed the headline from ‘Last Edition’ to ‘New Owners,’” he says.

Wick has since regained a seat on the Spokane Valley City Council.

The West Plains Stream directly mails free copies of its newspaper each month to households in the West Plains area, Wick says. The newspaper also is distributed at about 90 pick-up locations in the area.

That adds up to about 12,000 copies distributed each month.

“We have been hearing a lot of positive feedback, especially from the Medical Lake community,” Wick says.

In addition to the Wicks, who are the only full-time employees at the newspaper, The West Plains Stream has three part-time office and delivery workers and five freelance writers, all of whom work remotely.