The State of the Sun – Closing a chapter and ushering in a new beginning
We all know that the local newspaper business is challenging. A prime example is the recent sale by a local ownership group of Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat, to News Media Group owned by the hedge fund Alden Capital. We can all be proud of the fact that the Yountville Sun and the Calistoga Tribune are the last locally owned newspapers in Napa Valley.
Local ownership comes with challenges. One is the sustainability of a printed publication. This printed edition of the Sun will be the last, absent a donor to support the printing going forward. This was a hard decision to arrive upon. For the past four months, we have been working on an advertising proposal for the town of Yountville and the TID (Tourism Improvement District) board. The proposal was a combined advertisement buy of the last page of the Sun, to be used by the town and by local businesses to promote both. The proposal was a discounted advertising buy at a cost of $3,000 per month each for the Town and TID, and would have continued the decades of support that the town had contributed to the Sun in the past.
I personally continued paying for the printing of the Sun through May, in hopes that this proposal for advertising support would be approved. Unfortunately, the monthly advertising buy was not approved by the Town or TID.
This proposed advertising support would have paid for a weekly printed edition of the Sun for subscribers as well as residents of the Veterans Home. Without it, and combined with the loss of other long-time local advertisers, we can no longer pay for the cost of printing the Sun.
However, with any disappointing loss comes the opportunity to reinvent, which is what we will do with the Sun. We now have the Sun website (www.yountvillesun.com), which will provide ongoing local news, as well as advertising opportunities. In addition, we plan to launch a weekly newsletter for Sun subscribers. Our plan is to continue many of the much-loved columns and features that have long appeared in the printed edition.
A fully functional democracy is linked to local news publications. Independent coverage of local councils and other public bodies is critical to an informed electorate. This is why communities around the country are working to save publications, or establish local digital or print publications where there are none.
For all of us who love the printed paper, a transition like this is a loss. The Sun has been sustained by tremendous support from the Yountville community, from donors, subscribers, a remarkable group of volunteers who have been writers and contributors, organizers of amazing fundraising events and others that have contributed in so many other ways. We would have to devote the entire last printed edition to thank everyone, so please know that we are grateful and inspired by your support, dedication, talent and hard work that has kept the Sun going.
Two people in particular have done so much and have been so very dedicated to the Sun: Iren Jenny and Rob Wiley. We worked hard together over the past few months on the proposals to the town and TID. They were dedicated, and thoughtful and rallied when it was hard to continue to devote energy to keeping a printed edition of the Sun coming to subscribers, the Veterans Home and to locations where it was offered at no cost around Yountville.
And, of course, we can all thank Sharon Stensaas for her many years of dedication to the Sun, along with a heartfelt thank you to the amazing and talented Sun editor, Lisa Adams Walter, and her dedicated predecessor, Kim Beltran, who have provided invaluable leadership in support of our local news initiatives.
We hope these treasured friends and all of the other volunteers, subscribers, donors and advertisers will continue to support the Sun in this next chapter. Let’s all work to keep local journalism and local ownership of news sources alive and thriving.
