So Long, Farewell: Yountville Sun pauses
So long, farewell. The Yountville Sun is taking a pause, for now.
With a nod to Rodgers and Hammerstein and the von Trapp children in The Sound of Music, “Regretfully they tell us, But firmly they compel us, To say goodbye, To you…”
It was nearly a year ago that the Yountville Sun moved from print to a fully online format. At that time, I wrote that we were pivoting, that moving away from print was a “sign of the times” and also reflected on some of the personal highlights of the paper that I will always treasure.
Following last week’s announcement by Highway 29 Media’s CEO Marc Hand that he is stepping away from the company and shuttering its publications, I have received messages, calls and even some hugs on the streets of Yountville.
Everyone is asking, what can be done? We must save the Yountville Sun.
The Highway 29 Media editorial team is an incredibly talented, driven, small and mighty group of journalists that I deeply admire and respect, including Danielle Wilde, Kerana Todorov and Griffin Jones. We have supported each other through some really rocky times, and with journalist Sasha Paulsen’s guidance held each other up.
Why have we held it together? I believe that each of us is driven by two things: curiosity and the importance of local news. Freedom of press is a fundamental right in our country. We have also seen the power of reporting town news right here in Yountville.
Consider the bigger picture. Highway 29 Media, formed in 2022, until today published The Calistoga Tribune, The Yountville Sun, The American Canyon Current and The Napa County Times, a paywall free county-wide site. A bilingual weekly newsletter, Conéctate, has been on hiatus since last December.
To produce all of these publications with such a small team, we received valuable help from additional, local veteran journalists including David Kerns, Rebecca Yerger and Paul Franson. It has also been exciting to work with rising journalists including Xavey Bzdek and Fiona Ulrich from the UC Berkeley Journalism program, Kyle Foster of Napa Sports News and Will Coughlin who is set to graduate from Napa’s New Tech High School next month and continue on to study journalism at university.
At the Yountville Sun, I am incredibly grateful for contributors with whom I have worked, including Ranndy Piña, Kimberly Cook, Iren Aslanian Jenny, Myrna David, Susan Wiechers, Anthony Halstead, Nancy Caldwell, Marianne Lyon and Rob Wiley, as well as my predecessor, Kim Beltran.
Finally, I have been honored to help carry on the local news tradition that was launched by Sun founders Sharon Stensaas and her late husband Oscar Rhodes.
Will it all go away? I hope not. It may, however, take some time to reorganize and relaunch. The challenges, however, to fund, create and share local news are daunting.
What can you do to help? First of all, stay in touch. We have created a link to sign up for news which we will provide as we have it.
