Family and friends share their Pioneer memories

Kim Rutledge

In the spring of 2003, I was 28 and lost. I had just been laid off from my fourth journalism job in as many years. Newspapers were my life blood at the time, but newspapers were undergoing a dramatic transformation, and jobs in newsrooms were increasingly unstable.

My friend and neighbor Lisa Shafer, who at the time was the journalism teacher at Clayton Valley High School, called me with an intriguing job opportunity. The Clayton Pioneer had just come under new ownership, and they needed to hire someone with newspaper editing and design experience. Within days, I was in a windowless room in an office complex in Pleasant Hill with Tamara Steiner and Jill Bedecarré, making a newspaper from scratch.

The weeks leading up to the publication of the first issue of the new and improved Pioneer were stressful and exhausting. While Tamara and Jill were out looking for writers, stories, photos, and advertisers, I worked hard to make all our content look and sound professional. There was a lot of tension in that little, windowless office, but also a lot of laughter as we worked to put out a quality publication.

For the next six months, I watched the Pioneer flourish. We moved into offices in downtown Clayton, got more advertisers and contributors, and started to gain a positive reputation as the trusted news source of the community. In October 2003, I left the Pioneer for a full-time job, but the experience I gained and friend- ships I made during the infancy of the Pioneer still live with me today.

Jay Bedecarré

When our dad passed in 2021 from COVID-19 we went through his family archives and found newspaper clippings of each of his six kid’s accomplishments, in some cases starting with our birth announcement in the local newspaper.

I’m certain Pioneer stories about youth baseball, soccer and gymnastics, the city swim meet and high school sports over the past two decades have been saved by families in Clayton and Concord and will be family keepsakes just like the ones our mom and dad kept all those years.

Chronicling the life and times of our community is the purpose of The Pioneer.

Bev Britton

When I took a buyout from Contra Costa Newspapers in the early 2000s, my plan was to become more involved at our son’s school –and work on my tennis game at Oakhurst Country Club.

Then my husband showed me an ad for a copy editor at the Clayton Pioneer. I’ve always loved editing. It fits my detail-oriented personality.

So, I dusted off my resume and emailed it to Tamara Steiner. Her almost instantaneous response was enthusiastic, and we agreed to meet. We connected instantly. I loved her commitment to local news even while most newspapers were struggling to stay relevant.

Although our house on Eagle Peak Place was just down the road from the Pioneer office, I worked from home – before it was cool. My role soon expanded to writing one or two articles a month.

These days, I can watch a Concord City Council meeting online from the Gold Country, stopping to check on a load of laundry or sneak out for a tennis match. Through it all, I stay connected to a community we once called home.

Pete Cruz

I began my publishing career in the early 1990s, when cut and paste literally meant cutting typos off the proofs with an XActo knife and sticking the correction into place with hot wax. Learning new skills as the technology changed has kept things interesting for me, from learning my first WYSIWYG program all the way to taking the paper fully digital in 2020 without any previous experience in web design. As Tamara likes to say, we built the plane while flying it.

While watching the world change, working on a newspaper has given me a greater appreciation and respect for the work of independent journalists. I have no doubt the news business will continue to evolve in new and surprising ways, just as it has done since the start of my journey. I'm proud to have played a part in that.

Pamela Wiesendanger

Congratulations on the 20th Anniversary of The Pioneer! Surviving and thriving in print in this digital age is no easy feat. The key to success as I saw it during my time at the paper was a passion and commitment to the community and involvement of the community in reporting. No story was too big or too small to pitch from staff or a citizen. It could be written by either. A seemingly sleepy little town on Monday could be jumping with news competing for the front page by Wednesday. Each day was an adventure, wondering who might come in the door, call or email and say, “I think you’re going to want to know this.”

Howard Geller

Past Mayor and Councilman

Concert in The Grove Producer

Congratulations on your 20-year anniversary. Thank you, Tamara Steiner for your dedication and professionalism producing the Clayton/Concord Pioneer newspaper these past 20 years. You have truly filled the niche keeping our community well informed of the happenings within Clayton and the surrounding areas. I especially love the Events Calendar and the positive articles about our children along with the specialized informative columns written by our local professionals. You have helped make Clayton a community.

Laura Hoffmeister

Concord Mayor

Congratulations to the Pioneer for 20 years of a great community newspaper. They have provided and continue to provide great local news and event coverage for Concord as well as Clayton and Pleasant Hill in both print and online. I remember in 2008, when the publishers branched out into Concord with the Concordian (later merged into The Pioneer) the Concordian was named the Concord Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year.

If you want to get info on what is happening locally the Pioneer and PioneerPublishers.com is where you’ll find it.

Congrats to all the Pioneer staff past and present who have made the paper successful and informational.

Bob Hoyer Clayton's first mayor

It hardly seems that the Pioneer is 20 years old and I"m glad to be here to celebrate. Eldora was a journalist and was thrilled to have a Clayton newspaper. It is wonderful that you and Bob have continued to grow the paper to include other communities. I hope that you can continue to provide the best local news of the area.