By CLAYTON PARK

The Jet City Maven a community newspaper that has covered North Seattle for nearly five years, is changing its name as of this issue.

Our new name is The Seattle Sun.

Like the Jet City Maven, the Seattle Sun's focus will be covering the neighborhoods of North Seattle. The Seattle Sun is published monthly.

Our decision to change the name of the Maven was made to reflect the newspaper's growth as it approaches the fifth anniversary of its launch.

The Jet City Maven debuted in March 1997 as a bi-monthly newspaper that was produced out of our then-home in Licton Springs with a modest circulation of 5,000 copies and a coverage area limited to Northeast Seattle. By its third issue, the Maven had made the jump to becoming a monthly and had doubled its circulation.

Today, the paper now covers all of North Seattle and has grown to a circulation of more than 20,000 copies each month. Susan Brehme Park, who oversees a staff of three employees, is publisher. Clayton, who holds a full-time job as business editor of the Eastside Journal in Bellevue, helps out part-time as editor.

Over the years, our paper also has been the proud recipient of several awards for journalistic excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists as well as a national award for community service from Neighborhoods USA.

We coined the name "Jet City Maven" because "Jet City" was a nickname for Seattle in the '50s and '60s and because "maven" was a word that meant expert or know-it-all - a great way to describe a community newspaper, or so we thought.

As it turns out, perhaps it wasn't, judging from the number of people who have called us to express confusion over what "Jet City Maven" means. Some thought it meant "coven." The final straws came in September when Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago. Then, shortly following the tragic events of Sept. 11, we received a piece of Nazi hate mail from an anonymous sender who we believe may have targeted the paper because of its name ("maven" originated as a Yiddish word).

We decided this would be a good time for a new name - preferably one more easily recognizable as a newspaper.

We chose "Seattle Sun" because, as Susan explains, "it's a traditional newspaper name that promotes a positive image." Of course, there have been previous papers to use that name: most recently, a citywide weekly that ran from 1971-83.

As fate would have it, we got to meet one of the old Seattle Sun's former publishers, Alec Fisken, at a community meeting last fall. Fisken expressed delight upon learning of our plans to revive the Seattle Sun name. We promptly applied for and received a trademark from the state.

Fisken, who now works as a consultant, says the old Sun began as a community newspaper, initially covering Capitol Hill, Eastside and the U-District.

One of the old Sun's former staffers now writes for us: Jane Lotter, who writes a humor column called "Jane Explains."

Jane told us that she joined the old Sun in 1975 as a part-time classified ad sales rep and later switched to writing arts and entertainment features. She recalls telling people at the time that she wanted to write a humor column for the Sun called "Jane Explains." It took her 20 years, but her wish has finally come true.

Our other staffers include star reporter Leah Weathersby, news intern Rhys Walters and columnists Stan Stapp, Matt Maury, Tina Sutherland and Charlie Bailey.

The first issue of the Jet City Maven - March 1997

When Clayton and I wanted to start our paper, I envisioned a small 8-1/2 x 11 flyer that would be circulated to about 500 homes in my immediate neighborhood of Licton Springs. However, community activist Yolanda Martinez of the Lake City Little City Hall convinced us to launch a "real" newspaper. At the time, I was working at night at the Seattle Times in the Composing Department and Clayton was the Special Publications Editor at the Puget Sound Business Journal.

The first issue was released in March 1997 as a bi-monthly. 5,000 copies were printed and Clayton and some volunteers drove around distributing them throughout Northeast Seattle from Green Lake to Lake City.

By the third issue, the paper was made into a monthly and the circulation doubled. Within a year, the Jet City Maven coverage area was expanded to include all of North Seattle and the circulation was increased to 18,000.

Space was squeezed at the Park home, so we had no choice but to look for an office space. After months of braving the commercial real estate market, we found a great deal in Lake City at the Martin Units.

For the most part, we've run the paper ourselves while hiring the occasional freelance writer or contractor. We were finally able to afford to hire our first official "employee," a reporter, in 2000.

We now print 21,000 to 25,000 copies each month.

Fortune to publish article by Leah Weathersby

The Jan. 7 issue of Fortune Magazine is scheduled to include a short article by none other than the Seattle Sun's own staff reporter extraordinaire, Leah Weathersby. The article, Weathersby explains, is a humorous take on recommendation letters.