Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times writes about its business columnist Jon Talton, who died last week at the age of 69.
Macdonald writes, “Among the stories he helped cover in his years at The Seattle Times, as he listed in a ‘retirement’ column in 2019, were the collapse of Washington Mutual, the Great Recession, the Boeing Dreamliner’s delays, the growth of Amazon and transformation of South Lake Union, the Northwest Seaport Alliance, losses of iconic retailers, Big Tech, and the impact of growth on our city. Talton’s retirement didn’t exactly take: Asked to return in 2020 to help cover the pandemic’s effect on the local economy, he eagerly resumed the job he loved, contributing regular columns until just before his death.
“‘He would talk to people on so many sides of an issue and then just kind of cut through all of that, in a really clear way,’ said Seattle Times Executive Editor Michele Matassa Flores. ‘In writing about things like downtown recovering postpandemic, he was really incisive — he kind of reflected Seattle back to itself, in a way that made you stop and think.’
“Talton ‘thought carefully and deeply about the economy and issues of people’s financial well-being, and he could ask those difficult questions to powerful people,’ said Becky Bisbee, who was editor of the business section when Talton was hired. A Seattle Times reader, contacting the paper after Talton’s death, wrote of his appreciation of Talton’s coverage of downtown Seattle: ‘He helped me remain hopeful for our great city … and for that, I’m eternally grateful.'”
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