It takes a village… It’s really been 20 years

Long-time Clayton resident Tamara Steiner mulled over a career change in 2003 and that decision has impacted the lives of countless people and organizations in first Clayton, then Concord and now Pleasant Hill.

TAMARA STEINER The Pioneer

Twenty years ago this month, I stood with Jill Bedecarré in the middle of Center Street in front of the post office waiting for delivery of the first Clayton Pioneer. For six solid weeks, we had been white knuckling it up the steep side of the learning curve. As the driver unloaded the pallet with the first 5000 Pioneers, Jill sighed and asked “Did we just give birth to the same baby?”

Two decades later, as we put our 429th “baby” to bed, I’m again feeling more parent than publisher. Our kid grew up, Jill.

Her community newspaper, The Pioneer, has become a staple in the area – surviving jolting changes in the media world, economic ups and downs and a worldwide pandemic.

This May, her dream is 20 years old and we celebrate that milestone in this, the 429th issue of the newspaper publishers Tamara and Bob Steiner and their small but dedicated staff have produced, giving local residents news on government, schools, the arts, sports and many other aspects of community life in our little corner of the world.

Tamara Steiner was no stranger to the newspaper business.

“My dad was circulation manager for the Richmond Independent/Berkeley Gazette/Concord Transcript for 43 years. I grew up with paper and ink,” she recalled. “I wrote for Dean Lesher (owner of the local newspaper dynasty that included the Contra Costa Times) on and off from 1976 to about 1983. I did theater reviews, pet column, the Lamplighter restaurant column. Filled in as copy runner.” ing for several years before she and her husband, along with two other partners, opened Pacific Business Center in Pleasant Hill. She stayed for 20 years at the 44-suite executive business center.

TURNING OVER A NEWPAGE

In February 2003, when she scratched her newspaper itch, she and husband Bob purchased the Clayton Pioneer from Harry Green. She took over a paper more known for its typographical errors than its journalism.

“The executive suite business had gotten so technologically intensive that it stopped being fun. And I really wanted to work closer to home, get to work with a hot cup of coffee, wear jeans and take my dog,” Steiner explained about her jump into the community newspaper business.

Bonaventure Church. They met professionally when Steiner came into the Lewis Benedict Bedecarré advertising agency in Concord that Jill and her husband Jay owned to have them design a logo to give the paper a fresh local look. The Bedecarré’s middle son Justin was a senior at Clayton Valley High School at the time and on the staff of the Concord school’s awardwinning student newspaper, the Talon. When his mom told Justin about the new paper that she was going to work for, he said: “Our school paper is better than that rag.” He did not get many arguments.

Reflecting

COMMUNITY LIFE

JILL BEDECARRÉ

“Gestation” was in much simpler times. There was no Facebook or Nextdoor. The Internet was a tool, not a way of life. Computers did our bidding, printing what we told them to, not what they thought we should have said. Our phones had not yet become body parts. The local paper, although endangered, was still breathing on its own.

Today local journalism is on life support. Costs have skyrocketed, online advertising has eroded our revenue base and news aggregators are stealing our stories. In the last 20 years, hundreds of local news organizations have gone dark. Fully one-fifth of the country lives in a news desert.

But despite my dark words, it’s still light outside if we open the curtains. There are still great stories to tell with plenty of people to read them. Publishers are getting more creative with their business models--many converting to nonprofit. While hundreds of news sources have abandoned print altogether, many of us are still die-hard parents of “dead tree” babies.

We will keep on keepin’ on. Another 20 years? Not likely since in 2043, I will be 97.

But for the near future, we will keep doing what we’ve done for the last 20 years. We will find good stories and tell them well. We will stay in our lane, keeping our stories local. We will hire good people and stay out of their way. We will stay flexible.

And we will be forever grateful to the readers, the writers, the advertisers and the staff that helped us raise our baby. It does take a village.

She then used her MBA from Cal State Hayward to work in banking and account-

Her first employee was Jill Bedecarré, a former journalist. The two had become acquainted as members of St.

Working out of a tiny, windowless 8 by 10 office in Pleasant Hill, Steiner and her staff of assistant editor and advertising salesperson Bedecarré and graphic designer

Kim Rutledge, who had been laid off from a similar job at the Los Angeles Times, put out the first edition of the Clayton Pioneer on May 9, 2003.

The first issue was mailed to all Clayton residents featuring the lead story Art and Wine “Fun but No Sun” on the first of 10 pages with color and no discernable typos.

The Pioneer reflected then – and now – many of Steiner’s interests: local government and politics, the environment, education, community life, the arts, local history, reading, hiking and gardening.

By the time The Pioneer had published four issues, Steiner had assembled a roster of columnists to write about their fields of expertise. In the first issue, and every issue since, Lynne French wrote about real estate. After 20 years, French retired her column last month. Also in the first issue were columns by Dave Gray (Gray on Golf), Dan Wilson (Tech Talk) and Steiner’s son Don Richardson (Classic Movie Guy).

The fourth issue, which was 12 pages, also had columns by Linda Wyner (Food for Thought), Marybeth Rymer (Paws and Claws), Linda Johnson (Senior Moments), Kevin Parker (Hiker’s Haven), Jim Hudak (Music Notes) and Nicole Hackett, The Pioneer’s Garden Girl – who is still writing about the latest blooms and trends for your garden.

Sunny Solomon (Bookin’ with Sunny since 2008) and

Sally Hogarty (Stage Struck since 2014) are two other long-time columnists.

From Youthsports To The Olympics

Jill Bedecarré’s husband had started his career as a sportswriter for the Concord Transcript while still a student at Mt. Diablo High. Steiner wasn’t (and isn’t) much of a sports fan, but Jay Bedecarré convinced her that local sports are a key element of community life.

He explained that almost everyone reading the paper either had children or grandchildren in youth sports or went to a local high school that would be covered in The Pioneer.

Just months after The Pioneer debuted, Clayton Valley High graduate Erin Dobratz called Jill Bedecarré at her Clayton home in December to announce she had made the U.S. synchronized swimming team for the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, where she would win a bronze medal. Dobratz would be the first of five local athletes who represented America at the Olympics over these 20 years. Clayton residents Kara Kohler (rowing) and Kristian Ipsen (diving) both have been in two Olympic games and won bronze medals on the same day at the 2012 London Olympics.

Concord’s Mariya Koroleva competed in two Olympics (London and Rio) in duet synchronized swimming and Chuck Berkeley was on the

See 20 Years, page 11