The Cowles family announced on April 15, 2025 that it intends to donate The Spokesman-Review to a recently formed Spokane-based community nonprofit organization that plans to continue publishing the newspaper amid the changes and challenges roiling legacy media.
The plan called for Publisher Stacey Cowles and his family’s Cowles Company to transfer ownership of the 142-year-old newspaper and award a $2 million matching grant to the Comma Community Journalism Lab, which was founded by current Spokesman-Review Executive Editor Rob Curley.
On May 12, 2026, Comma announced it had reached its fund-raising goal and Cowles told Spokesman employees that the transition of ownership was beginning and would last at least 90 days.