Bodega Avenue paving project ends, stellar ceramics at SebArts, plus meet Sebastopol's homeless outreach worker at Taylor Lane Coffee in the Barlow tomorrow
I totally agree that your (not so) secret ingredient is Laura Bush Hagar! She is so dedicated to covering the events in our community and she makes herself accessible to input! Love her coverage and her writing style.
I agree that Laura Rush is one of the secret ingredients that make this paper great! and so many other contributors (Hi Steve Einstein! Hi Dewey!) and (I imagine)(have never met Laura nor you!) you...Dale! I don't know all that much about you editors/publishers but I am happy to read the Seb Times even though technically I live in 'Graton', (well, I guess Graton kind of IS 'a suburb of Sebastopol'. I am also glad to be an occasional contributor (during essay season!)
I cannot overstate how grateful I am for this publication. It was so depressing seeing the print versions of our local newspapers wither and die. I echo Kent Jenkins call for more subscribers. This is democracy in action! Public schools, public libraries and a free press are the cornerstones of democracy and we need to keep these institutions healthy and accessible.
Deep gratitude to Dale and Laura for getting this wonderful endeavor started, and for all the excellent contributors (including we, the commenters!).
“[W]e have a secret ingredient that others would find difficult to replicate. That’s Laura Hagar Rush…” Amen. And, the enriching addition of the talented contributing and guest writers.
Everything has an origin. Every locality needs a local news provider. “The Sebastopol Times” masthead has been around; Laura and most of the team have been reporting on our area for years; and us locals have always wanted to know the hard facts and intrigue behind the scenes. Yet, this iteration of The Sebastopol Times, and this particular assembly of veteran and upcoming journalists is what is needed in these times.
Notice what this publication doesn’t have: advertorials, AI slop, lifestyle puff pieces, classifieds, and all those ads you see in every other publication. News isn’t free to capture and deliver. Meaning, the stories in free publications are necessarily filtered through the lens of who is paying for it. I really appreciate how this publication radically discloses the affiliations of its founders and writers so that we readers can make our own decisions about how to understand a particular piece.
The founders of the current Sebastopol Times chose to do a subscription model to maintain fidelity to the news. Now, do the math. 1500 paid subscribers for a fairly new publication is awesome given our area’s population. Yet, that is a challenging total revenue to keep the lights on, and pay reporters appropriately for the value they bring. Despite that, The Times is expanding coverage. They are becoming a vital regional news source. I see them working hard to cover both where we live and where we spend our productive and recreational time.
If you are able to, please pay and subscribe. All of us need this kind of work being done for us. It’s both a sophisticated information source and a civic safety net. I don’t work for The Times. I just recognize that we need to support this effort for the benefit of our entire community.
I totally agree that your (not so) secret ingredient is Laura Bush Hagar! She is so dedicated to covering the events in our community and she makes herself accessible to input! Love her coverage and her writing style.
I agree that Laura Rush is one of the secret ingredients that make this paper great! and so many other contributors (Hi Steve Einstein! Hi Dewey!) and (I imagine)(have never met Laura nor you!) you...Dale! I don't know all that much about you editors/publishers but I am happy to read the Seb Times even though technically I live in 'Graton', (well, I guess Graton kind of IS 'a suburb of Sebastopol'. I am also glad to be an occasional contributor (during essay season!)
I cannot overstate how grateful I am for this publication. It was so depressing seeing the print versions of our local newspapers wither and die. I echo Kent Jenkins call for more subscribers. This is democracy in action! Public schools, public libraries and a free press are the cornerstones of democracy and we need to keep these institutions healthy and accessible.
Deep gratitude to Dale and Laura for getting this wonderful endeavor started, and for all the excellent contributors (including we, the commenters!).
Congratulations on the 1500/6000 milestone!
“[W]e have a secret ingredient that others would find difficult to replicate. That’s Laura Hagar Rush…” Amen. And, the enriching addition of the talented contributing and guest writers.
Everything has an origin. Every locality needs a local news provider. “The Sebastopol Times” masthead has been around; Laura and most of the team have been reporting on our area for years; and us locals have always wanted to know the hard facts and intrigue behind the scenes. Yet, this iteration of The Sebastopol Times, and this particular assembly of veteran and upcoming journalists is what is needed in these times.
Notice what this publication doesn’t have: advertorials, AI slop, lifestyle puff pieces, classifieds, and all those ads you see in every other publication. News isn’t free to capture and deliver. Meaning, the stories in free publications are necessarily filtered through the lens of who is paying for it. I really appreciate how this publication radically discloses the affiliations of its founders and writers so that we readers can make our own decisions about how to understand a particular piece.
The founders of the current Sebastopol Times chose to do a subscription model to maintain fidelity to the news. Now, do the math. 1500 paid subscribers for a fairly new publication is awesome given our area’s population. Yet, that is a challenging total revenue to keep the lights on, and pay reporters appropriately for the value they bring. Despite that, The Times is expanding coverage. They are becoming a vital regional news source. I see them working hard to cover both where we live and where we spend our productive and recreational time.
If you are able to, please pay and subscribe. All of us need this kind of work being done for us. It’s both a sophisticated information source and a civic safety net. I don’t work for The Times. I just recognize that we need to support this effort for the benefit of our entire community.