The free newspaper is distributed on Thursdays to hundreds of businesses and public spaces in the Tacoma area.
In a recent two-year period, publisher John Weymer paid $9,157.06 in wage theft claims that were filed against him at the Washington Department of Labor and Industries.
[2] In September 2021, Tacoma Weekly was fined $15,000 for offering political candidates a news story or endorsement from the paper in exchange for money.
The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission found that the paper ran cover stories for two paying candidates that were written under a staff member's byline without mention of it being a paid advertisement.
John Weymer claimed that the fine was an overreaction to a mistake the paper committed, and insisted that the cover stories followed the paper's editorial guidelines and were not meant to be advertisements.