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Editor’s column | These stories were the most popular with our readers in 2025

Posted on December 30th, 2025 By: Vince Dice

When I started in this business, back in the halcyon days of the 1990s, we had to do a little guesswork about what people wanted to read.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a pretty good idea of what readers wanted from us. I hate the term “if it bleeds, it leads,” but there’s a reason people say it.

But we had no way of knowing with certainty what articles people read first when they opened the newspaper in the morning. Sometimes we didn’t know which stories struck a nerve until we started to get letters to the editor complaining about them.

That’s not a problem now. In the Internet age, we perform a readership survey every time we post a story. Within a day or two, we know whether a story found an audience.

Most of our audience probably won’t read this story. But reviewing our most-read stories of the year is one of my favorite things to do around the holidays.

A collage of images from our most popular stories of 2025. Clockwise from top left, Chick-fil-A plans a new Gig Harbor location; a No Kings protest in June; the scene of a double homicide near Gig Harbor; a Summer Sounds at Skansie concert; the Heritage Distilling tasting room on Harborview Drive; and the 2024-25 Gig Harbor High girls basketball team.

It’s a good way of reviewing what topics readers find most interesting. Sometimes it reminds me that we need to follow up on something. And, admittedly, it’s gratifying to look back at stories that readers found interesting and useful.

So here are the stories that received the most page views on our website in 2025 (through Dec. 29).

1) Peninsula School District suspends all three Gig Harbor High girls basketball coaches for rest of season

By Gig Harbor Now staff on Jan. 28. Read the story here.

This was not only our most-read story of 2025, it was our most-read story since we began publishing in 2021.

We had heard rumors that something was happening with the Tides’ girls basketball team and started asking questions. The school district soon sent a news release announcing that it had placed the entire girls basketball coaching staff on administrative leave with just a few games left in the season.

The 2024-25 Gig Harbor girls basketball team during a timeout. Photo courtesy Gig Harbor basketball

About a month later, after we made a public records request, we were able to report why. A team parent notified the district that the coaches consumed alcohol during a trip to a tournament in Florida in December 2024, a violation of district policy. The coaches argued that they were unaware of the policy, were never intoxicated and did not drive after drinking.

Dan Dizon, a district executive and former GHHS girls basketball coach, filled in on the bench for the remainder of the 2024-25 season. He led the Tides to a district playoff berth.

Michelle Hackett took over this season.

2) Heritage closing tasting rooms in Washington and Oregon, including here

By Vince Dice on Oct. 23. Read the story here.

Early on the morning of Oct. 23, Heritage Distilling announced that it was closing its tasting room at the corner of Harborview Drive and Pioneer Way, along with others in Washington and Oregon. Those that are part of the distillery’s Tribal Beverage Network will remain open.

Heritage’s owners, Justin and Jennifer Stiefel, attributed the closures largely to taxes and regulation in the Northwest. Yet the company has struggled since it went public in late 2024. The NASDAQ index threatened the company with delisting in April.

The closure is also part of an industry trend, as beer and liquor manufacturers face a public that’s drinking less than ever before.

The downtown Gig Harbor location is scheduled to close permanently on Dec. 31.

Heritage Distilling’s tasting room at the corner of Pioneer Way and Harborview Drive will close on Dec. 31. Photo by Vince Dice

3) State suspends treatment provider’s license

By Conor Wilson on Nov. 7. Read the story here.

The state Department of Health denied the application of a Pierce County substance use treatment provider to become a credentialed behavioral health agency. The department alleged that the provider violated a previous agreement by allowing a previous CEO to oversee day-to-day operations. That previous CEO had been accused of engaging in unethical practices for financial gain.

The treatment provider’s new owner denied the allegations and said she was confident that the denial would be reversed on appeal.

4) Harbor Happenings | Big crowd expected for protest on Point Fosdick Drive

By Charlee Glock-Jackson on June 10. Read the story here.

Every week, Charlee shares details on upcoming events in our area. This feature has proven popular and usually chronicles fun things like the Farmers Market, Christmas celebrations and other community events.

This one opened with an upcoming protest, dubbed “No Kings,” at the corner of Olympic and Point Fosdick drives. It was the second big protest of the spring, following the Hands Off demonstration in April.

The No Kings protest at the corner of Point Fosdick and Olympic drives in Gig Harbor on Saturday, June 14. Photo by Carolyn Bick © Carolyn Bick

Estimates of the crowd at the June 14 protest, held to coincide with President Donald Trump’s birthday, ranged from 1,000 to three or four times that many.

5) Summer Sounds at Skansie lineup set for 2025

By Gig Harbor Now staff on Feb. 24. Read the story here.

We do this story every year as soon as the city announces the Summer Sounds concert schedule. It’s one of our most popular stories every time.

6) Naval Hospital in Bremerton transfers patients to civilian health system

By Conor Wilson on Feb. 18. Read the story here.

Conor Wilson is a reporter through Washington State University Murrow Fellowship program. He covers the health care system for Gig Harbor Now and the Kitsap Sun, a daily newspaper in Bremerton.

This story detailed the Navy’s plans to transfer nearly 700 patients on TRICARE For Life — a health insurance plan for retired military personnel that supplements Medicare — to the civilian health care system. It’s part of a trend as the military retreats on providing health services to retirees.

7) Day Tripper | A visit to Poulsbo, Washington’s Little Norway

By Mary Williams on Dec. 24, 2024. Read the story here.

The idea behind Mary’s column is to take readers on short trips to attractions easily reachable from Gig Harbor — aka Day Trips. In this one, we zipped an hour or so up Highway 16 and Highway 3 to Poulsbo in Kitsap County.

Gig Harbor reminds me of Poulsbo in some ways (minus the Little Norway kitschiness), so I could see how this one would be popular.

8) Chick-fil-A considering new location at current site of Olympic Drive Chevron station

By Ted Kenney on July 12. Read the story here.

This is one of those stories that I knew would be very popular.

Reporter Ted Kenney spends a lot of time digging around in permit applications filed with the city of Gig Harbor and Pierce County. That’s how he learned that Chick-fil-A, an Atlanta-based chicken sandwich giant, was planning a new location in Gig Harbor.

The fast food restaurant is planned at 5115 Olympic Drive, where an aging Chevron station currently stands.

The Chick-fil-A on South 19th Street in Tacoma. Photo by Ted Kenney

9) Both victims found following house fire died of gunshot wounds

By Vince Dice on April 28. Read the story here.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that two men, found following a house fire on 14th Avenue near the Kitsap County line, died from gunshot wounds to the head. County prosecutors later charged a 25-year-old Lakewood man, the son of one of the victims and brother of the other, with first-degree murder and arson.

10) Donuts and Pilates: Do they spell a turnaround at Peninsula Shopping Center?

By Ted Kenney on May 28. Read the story here.

Practically anything that happens at Peninsula Shopping Center on Judson Street is destined to be a big story. That was true in May, when Ted broke the news that Fusion Donut Café and Club Pilates were opening there.

That wasn’t the end of it, either. Ted later told us that Big Nate’s Trading Cards and JAX Salon were joining Fusion and Club Pilates at Peninsula Shopping Center.

The biggest space at the complex — the longtime home to a QFC grocery and later to 7Seas Brewery — remains vacant. Guess that’s one of the stories we’ll be watching in 2026.

Alberto Peña, a co-owner of Fusion Donuts, fetches donuts for a customer on Monday, July 14, 2025. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann

Just missed the cut

These stories were popular in 2025, just not quite popular enough to make our top 10.

Local man’s pinball passion keeps players around the region in the game, by Marsha Hart on July 7. This feature about Justin Kaping and the pinball machines at Locust Cider and other locations set a new high score for stories about arcades and cideries.

John and Marilyn Ross lived together, left together and will rest together, by Vince Dice on June 23: John and Marilyn Ross, members of a pioneering Gig Harbor family, died within a couple weeks of each other after 77 years of marriage. Speaking to the Ross family and learning about John and Marilyn was my favorite assignment of 2025.

Gorst culvert projects will delay drivers starting next spring, by Vince Dice on Dec. 11: Did I write this because I regularly travel between Bremerton and Gig Harbor, and it affects me? Maaayyybe. But I clearly wasn’t the only person interested in WSDOT’s plans for five culvert replacement projects near Gorst, with work to start in spring 2026.

Texas mystery-developer plans 31 houses next door to Gig Harbor High School, by Ted Kenney on March 26: Readers were surprised to learn about plans to build 31 homes on a swampy property adjacent to Gig Harbor High. A new developer submitted a revised plan, calling for just 20 homes, in September.

Vince Dice is the editor of Gig Harbor Now.