Most of the names and faces featured in the magazine are people of color - no surprise there - though the magazine's research indicates nearly a quarter of its readership is white.

ColorsNW seems to have struck a local chord with readers who want honest writing and reporting without the attitude.

The first issue, launched in April 2001 without even a mock-up to show prospective advertisers, was the result of kitchen table conversations and a dream supported by perhaps a few prayers - not the standard business model. Five years later ColorsNW is still here and still growing.

The magazine's editor in chief is Naomi Ishisaka, a 30-year-old Seward Park resident. Robert Jeffrey Jr., 36, is publisher/CEO.

Both Ishisaka and Jeffrey hail from families with strong, service-minded parents. Both are Seattle Times alumni who saw, during the 2000-2001 labor strike, the chance to act on their dream to, as the 1960s cliché put it, make a difference.

Ishisaka is blunt about what she considers the mainstream media's treatment of complex issues concerning communities of color.

"We're low-hanging fruit," she says, referring to the standard media approach to ethnic festivals and crime.

She also is aware of those issues that escape much of the mainstream media and contribute to the richness of her own publication.

Invoking a theoretical example, she notes: "I may look black and be Ugandan on one side and African American on the other."

Taking the plunge

Ishisaka grew up in north Seattle and is a 1993 Garfield High School graduate, where she served as co-editor of the school newspaper.

She regards her exposure to Garfield's diverse student body as "a positive experience. It was an education beyond an education."

Ishisaka is the daughter of Anthony Ishisaka, professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work and an activist on behalf of the Asian-American community. Her mother is a retired schoolteacher who focused on special education children.

A sense of social justice was in the air she breathed at home.

For Ishisaka, whose father was interned during World War II, the late Walt Woodward has been a journalistic exemplar. Woodward, editor and publisher of the Bainbridge Review, opposed the internment of Japanese-Americans in the months following Pearl Harbor.

But it was a Seattle Times' "boot camp" for aspiring journalists in 1992, led by African American journalist Don Williams, that determined her future career path.

"He was tough, really tough," Ishisaka says of the man she considers a role model. At the end of the sessions she told herself: "This is a way to serve the public."

Ishisaka graduated from Evergreen State College in 1997. The former editor-in-chief of her college newspaper went on to gain valuable experience at newspapers like the Hermiston Herald, Seattle P-I, the Oregonian, and Seattle Times.

Ishisaka's resume reflects a young person with drive and focus. At each stop along her career path she burnished her skills at page design, copy editing and the judgment calls involved in putting together a features page or front page story.

During the 2000-2001 Seattle Times newspaper strike Robert Jeffrey Jr., operations manager at the Times, unfurled his vision for ColorsNW to Ishisaka.

The odds were strong Ishisaka had a Times job waiting for her at when the strike ended.

"It was scary," she said, but took the plunge anyway.

The first issue hit 32 pages. The July 2005 issue, scarcely five years later, ran 64 pages.

From the first, it was clear ColorsNW had a strong editorial vision, and the magazine has not gone soft.

The June 2005 issue explored the "borderlands of identity" where, according to writer Silja J.A. Talvi, "To be queer and a person of color can often mean risking rejection and a peculiar kind of familial invisibility."

The same issue featured an interview with Antioch Bible Church pastor Ken Hutcherson, who takes a dim view of the gay rights movement and other liberal apostasies.

"In this man's world, absolutes reign," declares the article. The lively, informed exchange framed a kind of stark dialogue rarely seen within the news pages of this city.

ColorsNW is not all about hard news, however. Also in the June issue: A portrait of Renton African American violinist Quinton Morris, founder and leader of The Young Eight string octet and a piece on Galerias restaurant on Capitol Hill.

Respect for the reader's intelligence and a lack of tragic hipness appear to be core values.

Awards and recognition, from the Society of Professional Journalists to the Mayor's Small Business award, have followed.

So have the heavy-hitter, mainstream advertisers like Nordstrom, Macy's, Amtrak, Weyerhauser, Port of Seattle, QFC, Starbucks, Safeco and Microsoft.

If respecting diversity is a moral imperative, it is also a business, and statistics reinforce the notion.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, minority and women owned businesses generated more than $500 million in revenue for the Washington state economy in 2003. The census also indicates that Asian American households reflect a median income nearly 30 percent higher than the general population - $53,553 vs. $41,400.

Overall, according to the census, Washington ranks eighth in the nation for multi-racial buying power, where African Americans are expected to increase their buying power by 40 percent by 2009.

A man with vision

Publisher and CEO Jeffrey, a 1991 graduate of Hampton University, had learned all aspects at the Times through a fellowship - circulation, finance, the newsroom - before becoming operations manager.

His vision for ColorsNW came about almost casually, Jeffrey says.

"It started with conversations with my wife around the table," he recalls. The couple, noting the diversity of their own families, also noted the lack of diversity coverage in the mainstream media.

"It was a culmination of seeing our families," he says.

Jeffrey says he wanted a magazine people could put on their coffee table with pride.

As it was for Ishisaka, the launch was scary.

"Ignorance is bliss," he laughs. Jeffrey was 31 at the time.

Jeffrey, like Ishisaka, can point to parents who are high achievers. His father is the Rev. Dr. Robert Jeffrey of Seattle's New Hope Baptist Church and well-known civil rights figure. His mother has served as regional director for the NAACP in Virginia.

Growing up, the road ahead seemed to lead to his becoming either an attorney or a minister, but he really dreamed of becoming a jazz trumpet player.

"I chickened out on that dream," he laughs. "I wanted to eat."

Each year since its launch his magazine has shown 80 percent revenue growth, Jeffrey says.

Current circulation is 25,000, distributed free in retail outlets and news stands from Everett to Tacoma.

Jeffrey notes ColorsNW is a small business. He doesn't take the future for granted. Jeffrey credits his staff with getting the magazine to this point.

"If I'm the dumbest person in the room I figure we're going to be all right," he says.

Jeffrey's message to his readers, including whites, is simple and basic: "These ethnic groups are people. These stories you read could be your own."

Ishisaka knows the humanizing power of story telling that respects people and the truth as best as one is able to know it.

"It's an absolute dream job," she says.

In her off time she walks around Seward Park.

Asked if thoughts about work intrude while she strolls the bucolic setting, Ishisaka laughs: "Always. But I wouldn't trade it for anything."

ColorsNW Magazine,
1319 Dexter Ave. N. Suite 250,
Seattle, WA 98109.
206/444-9251.
www.colorsnw.com

Mike Dillon may be reached through editor@sdistrictjournal.com.

©Pacific Publishing Company 2005