About

For 41 years, we were the only weekly English-edition newspaper serving Washington’s Asian community. The Northwest Asian Weekly released its final print edition on Jan. 19, 2023, and transitioned to online-only operations. While our method of delivering news has changed, our commitment to empower the Asian community has not.

Assunta Ng, the original publisher, says that before she founded the Asian Weekly’s now-defunct sister paper, Seattle Chinese Post in 1982, immigrants “had to go to a billboard in Chinatown to find out what was going on.” For four decades, Ms. Ng’s dual newspapers informed the community of events and news relevant to the Asian community. They were a relatively early participant in what would become a significant trend—the proliferation of Asian-language media in the United States. The growth is fed by demographics, since Asian and Pacific ethnic groups make up the fastest-growing segment in America’s population.

In the wake of new ownership beginning in June 2024 and as we navigate the digital age’s rapid evolution, our commitment to amplifying diverse voices remains steadfast. We are resolute in our mission to empower the AAPI community, celebrating its multifaceted heritage and achievements.

AWARDS

International Awards:

1992 International Women’s Forum’s Corporate Award, “Women making a difference.”

National Awards:

2008 Wells Fargo Women Small Business Trailblazer Award
2006 Publisher’s story selected for Chicken Soup for Entrepreneurial Soul
2001 Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute’s National Summit Heroine Award
1991 Women of Enterprise Awards sponsored by Avon & SBA
1984 Esquire Magazine’s The Best of Men and Women under 40 (the only Asian woman in the US and the only woman from Washington state receiving the award).

Regional Awards:

2022 — Seven 1st place wins in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA) Better Newspaper Contest: Health/Medical (Mahlon Meyer), Business News (Mahlon Meyer), Arts Feature (Andrew Hamlin), Topical Column (Samantha Pak), Branding Ad (Han Bui), Multiple-Advertiser Ad (Han Bui, Kelly Liao, Assunta Ng), and Video (Ruth Bayang, Nuk Suwanchote, Minh Le, Assunta Ng, John Liu, and George Liu).
2021 — 27 WNPA awards including four 1st place wins in the Education (Janice Nesamani), Art reviews (Andrew Hamlin), Personality profile (Nina Huang), and Business feature story (Assunta Ng). Our writers also won 2nd place in News writer of the year (Janice Nesamani), 3rd place in Feature writer of the year (Andrew Hamlin), and 3rd place, Sports writer of the year (Jason Cruz).
2020 — 24 WNPA awards including nine 1st place wins, and our writers won 1st (Carolyn Bick) and 2nd place (Mahlon Meyer) in the News Writer of the Year category for their writing on social justice issues and Asian American immigrants. Kai Curry took 3rd in the Feature Writer of the Year category.
2019 — 19 WNPA awards, four 1st place wins. Stacy Nguyen, Kai Curry, Tiffany Ran, and Assunta Ng won first place in the Art Reviews, Election Story, Business News Story, and General Interest Column or Blog categories, respectively.
2018 — 11 WNPA awards including 2nd place for News Writer of the Year (Carolyn Bick) for her writing on politics, immigrant rights and social justices issues, and Asian American health concerns. Also 1st place (Ruth Bayang and Stacy Nguyen) in the Comprehensive Coverage, Multiple Writers category, for their coverage on the Navigation Center controversy. Nguyen also won 1st place in the Special Section Covers category for her front page design on a Lunar New Year issue. Jason Cruz won 1st place in Government Story, Janice Nesamani won 1st place in the Lifestyle Feature Story
2017 Association of Washington Generals’ Community Service Award
2016 Assunta Ng named 50 most influential people by Seattle Magazine
2016 Assunta Ng received Chinese American Citizens Alliance Award
2015 Assunta Ng received Organization of Chinese Americans award
2015 Asian Weekly received 7 SPJ awards including one in 2^nd place, General Excellence
2014 Asian Weekly received 13 WNP awards including community service award
2013 (Andrew Hamlin, 1st place in the Best General Interest Column, “At the Movies”)
2013 (Marino Saito, 1st place in the Best Story on the Arts, “Kaori Nakamura: Retiring dancer was truly a dream come true”)
2013 (George Liu & Han Bui, 1st place in the Color Photo Essay, “Happy birthday, Uncle Bob.”)
2013 (Sue Misao, 2nd place in the Best News Story, Long, “Cause of Chinatown fire remains undetermined.”)
2013 (Jason Cruz, 2nd place in the Best Crime and Court story, “Tacoma man sentenced for plot claims it was just a ‘joke'”)
2013 (Stacy Nguyen, 2nd place in the Best General Feature Story, Long, “Last day ditch”)
2013 (Stacy Nguyen, 3rd place in the Best General Feature Story, Long, “Local woman champions brother’s release”)
2013 (Zachariah Bryan, 2nd place in the Best General Feature Story, Short, “What will future ‘district’ elections mean”)
2013 (Han Bui, 2nd place in the Best Front Page Design)
2013 (Assunta Ng, 2nd place in the Community Service Award)
2013 (Vivian Nguyen, 3rd place in the Best Topical Columns, “A-pop!”)
2013 (Annisa Amalia, Han Bui, and George Liu, 3rd place in the Color Photo Essay, “Children’s Parade 2014”)
2012 (Sarah Yee, 1st place in the Best Education Story category with “Cyber-bulling: Abuse takes its toll on a new generation of American youth.”
2012 (Jason Cruz, 3rd place in the Best Sports Feature category with “The LAST Jeremy Lin article you should read.”
2012 (Tiffany Ran, 1st place in the Best Lifestyle Feature story category with “Undocumented Immigrants”
2012 (Tiffany Ran, 2nd place in the Best Government Reporting category with “City of Bellevue and Sound Transit clash over Light Rail.”
2011 (Jason Cruz, 2nd place in the Best Sports Feature category for his “Island ball” story, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2011 (Jason Cruz, 3rd place in the Best News Story — Long category for, “ID going to new heights,” Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2011 (Tiffany Ran, 2nd place awards in the Best General Feature Story — Long and Best Environmental Story categories for “In pursuit of the American Dream,” and “Man eats shark,” respectively, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2011 (Nina Huang, 3rd place in Best Lifestyle Feature Story for “Tattooed APIs,” Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2011 (Han Bui, 2nd place in the Best Feature Page Design category for “23 reasons why the ID rocks,” Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2011 (Han Bui, 3rd place in the Best Front Page Design for the June 12, 2010 issue, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2010 (Amy Phan, 1st place in the Best Comprehensive Coverage of a Single Issue, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2010 (Han Bui and Stacy Nguyen, 1st place in the Best Newspaper Website, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2010 (Stacy Nguyen, 1st place in the Best Front Page Design, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2010 (Han Bui and Stacy Nguyen, 2nd place in the Best Front Page Design, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2010 (Assunta Ng, 3rd place in the Best Blog, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest)
2009 (Stacy Nguyen, 1st place in Editorial and Commentary, Society of Professional Journalists 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest)
2009 (Stacy Nguyen, 2nd place in Editorial and Commentary, Society of Professional Journalists 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest)
2009 (Han Bui and Stacy Nguyen, 3rd place in Best New Site, Society of Professional Journalists 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest)
2009 (Assunta Ng, 3rd place in Lifestyles Reporting, “Dim sum made easy,” Society of Professional Journalists 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest)
2009 (Mark Lee, 3rd place in Editorial and Commentary, Society of Professional Journalists 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest)
2009 (Stacy Nguyen, 3rd place in Graphics and Illustrations, Society of Professional Journalists 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest)
2009 (Eleanor Lee, 3rd place in Opinion category, Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue)
2009 (Nina Huang, 3rd place in Best Story in the Arts category, WNPA in Olympia)
2009 (Han Bui, 3rd place in Advertisement, WNPA in Olympia)
2009 (Han Bui, 1st place in Web Design WNPA in Olympia)
2008 Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s Best Business Practice Award
2008 Staff received 2nd place from Society of Professional Journalists writing award in news story.)
2008 (Staff received Washington Newspapers Publisher Association’s 3rd place feature writing)
2008 (Staff received Washington Newspapers Publisher Association’s 1st place in arts column)
2007 Society of Professional Journalists writing award (staff received 4 other awards.)
2006 US Sen. Hillary Clinton & Maria Cantwell’s Women of Valor award
2006 (Staff, 1st place, feature photo in Northwest Asian Weekly, Society of Professional Journalists)
2006 (Staff received Washington Newspapers Publisher Association’s feature writing)
2005 (Staff received Washington State Publishers Association writing award)
2005 Washington State Publishers Association business writing award
2005 Puget Sound Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award
2005 Spirit of Liberty Award from Ethnic Heritage Council
2005 Distinguished Alumni of the Year from UW Communication Dept
2004 (Staff received 2nd place award, news photo from Washington State Publishers Association)
2004 University of Washington Communication Dept. Hall of Fame
2002, Legacy of Courage Award. Astro Society in Oregon
2000 Distinguished Service to Journalism Award from Society of Professional Journalists
1999 Health coverage award from Region X Dept. of Health & Human Services
1995 Seattle Times 100 most influential people in Washington State
1993 SBA Region Xís Woman Business Advocate of the Year (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska)
1992 SBA Western Washington Woman Business Advocate of the Year
1992 SBA Western Washington Minority Business Advocate of the Year
1991 Nordstrom’s Cultural Diversity Award
1986 Pacific Northwest Magazine’s The Brightest under 40 (the only Asian woman)

Local Awards:

2017 City of Seattle Cultural Ambassador Award
2017 Northwest Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post recognized by UW Foster School of Business Impact as Business of the Year
2012 Assunta received UW Time Millenium award
2011 (Assunta Ng) University of Washington’s Charles E. Odegaard Award
2007 Community Service award from India Association of Washington
2007 Mentoring award from Women of Color Empowered Committee
2006 Seattle University’s Law School Women of the Year award
2005 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute’s community service award
2005 Women’s University Club Brava Award
2004 Washington State Multicultural Education Community Service Award
2004 Diversity Employment Award
2003 Korean Community Service Award
2001 Citizen of the Year Award. Municipal League of King County
1998 University of Washington Alumni Association’s Multi-culturalism award
1998 Asian Management Business Association’s Cohabitation Award
1997 Big Sisters Mentor Award
1996 Community Service Award from the Asian community
1991 Japanese American Citizens League—Community Service Award
1991 Eastside Weekly’s influential people under 40
1990 Matrix Table, Women of Achievement Award—Women in Communications
1989 Network for Managerial and Professional Women Mentor Award
1989 Seattle Weekly’s influential people under 40
1984 Mayor Charles Royer Small Business Award (the only minority woman receiving the award)