One comment in the r/PortAngeles2 thread about the Olympic Herald cut past the local drama to the economics of operations like it. Such sites, the commenter wrote, are "primarily buoyed by dark money and a few large donors dropping cash into a gofundme."
That is one commenter's characterization of the genre, offered as opinion in a public forum, not a finding about any specific donor to the Olympic Herald. But it raises a question readers of Anthony Tomashefsky's publication are entitled to ask: who actually funds it, and where does the money go?
The public record offers no answers, because the Olympic Herald publishes none.
What the site solicits, and what it discloses
The site's archived donate page, captured October 25, 2026, solicits one-time contributions at preset amounts of $25, $50, $200, and $500, plus an open "other amount" field with no stated ceiling, and recurring memberships at $10 per month or $100 per year. Payment is through Stripe. The page states, "Contributions are not tax-deductible," and closes with reader testimonials praising the site's "hard hitting stories" and "fearless reporting."
What it does not state: any legal entity that receives the money, any accounting of how contributions are spent, any donor policy with teeth, any annual report, any disclosure of large gifts. The page's sole institutional description is "Independently owned in Clallam County, Washington."
The site's ethics page adds one sentence on ownership. "One person: founder Anthony Tomashefsky. No parent company, no investors, no chain", and a promise that "no donor, subscriber, or friend of the paper sees a story early, kills a story, or softens one." It points readers to an About page for "the receipts." As of October 25, 2026, that About page does not load; its address redirects to itself.
Why opacity matters here
Donor opacity at a small outlet would be a minor concern if the outlet were a hobby blog about hiking trails. The Olympic Herald is not that. TROH's archive documents 425 articles, all by Tomashefsky, concentrated on named local individuals: Judge Brent Basden (109 articles), Court Commissioner Brian Parker (58), Ben Mavy (17), Dr. Steve Tutty (6), Dr. William Singer (5). The first three are, respectively, the judge who ruled against Tomashefsky, the commissioner who ruled against him, and the man a Clallam County court protected from him in a one-year stalking and harassment order granted August 26, 2025.
When a publication's coverage maps onto its owner's litigation opponents, and that publication solicits money from unnamed sources with no disclosures, the question a Reddit commenter phrased as "dark money" becomes a legitimate transparency question: is anyone paying for this beyond the readers clicking a Stripe button? The site's design makes the answer unknowable. There is no entity to audit, no nonprofit filing to inspect, no About page that loads.
The documented financial trail that does exist points the other direction: a September 2023 UCC filing showing Tomashefsky and his prior company, Advice Chaser LLC, pledging all tangible and intangible assets, down to patents, trademarks, and "commercial tort claims", to a secured creditor; a $42,128 default judgment in New York filed of record in February 2024; and BBB complaints alleging his prior venture collected $6,000 to $14,000 upfront from clients who say they received nothing.
Legitimate nonprofit newsrooms handle this differently as a matter of course: they publish donor policies, file annual reports with the IRS, and disclose major funders precisely so readers can judge whether coverage follows money. The Olympic Herald's structure forecloses that judgment entirely. There is no nonprofit to file anything, no board to ask, and, per the ethics page, no parent company, investors, or chain. Just one person, whose other ventures' financial history is documented, asking for money in $500 increments.
The Olympic Herald asks readers for up to $500 at a time. What it offers in return for their trust is a one-sentence ownership claim and a broken link. Readers and donors deserve better than a black box with a Stripe button, and the commenter's phrase, opinion though it was, will hang over every donation ask until the site publishes the disclosures a real newsroom would consider routine.
This article relies on public court records and public complaints. TROH welcomes a response from Mr. Tomashefsky and will publish it in full.