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The TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune Enterprise Enterprise & Scimitar & Scimitar
VisitVisit www.healdsburgtribune.com www.healdsburgtribune.com for for daily daily updates updates on local on local news news andand views views Our 157 year, Number 18 Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, Healdsburg, California California
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1865 –May 5, 2022 Date,Date, 2020 2020
The Tribune will continue—after all NEW OWNERS STEPPED FORWARD AFTER CESSATION ANNOUNCEMENT Staff report
forward as were calling it quits, saying goodbye to our reporting staff and telling the community we were walking away from print.” Indeed, the April 28 edition of the Tribune ran a banner headline: “Stop the presses: Tribune’s final edition” over a story that recounted the newspaper’s history. “We didn’t want to see a treasured newspaper lost. We moved the Bohemian’s office to Healdsburg in 2020 and love the community,” Pulcrano said. “Residents here have worked hard to maintain community journalism, and we intend to give the community a voice and local information every week.” Rosemary Olson of Windsor has been named publisher, and interim editor Daedalus Howell will rebuild the editorial team, since Tribune staff had moved on to other jobs and personal pursuits by the time the short-lived closure occurred. “We are humbled and extremely encouraged by the community response to the purchase announcement,” Olson said. “We
also appreciate the trust that the Local News Initiative placed in us to be stewards of an important legacy. We’ll make good on our promise to give Healdsburg the best newspaper possible, along with digital marketing services to support locally-based businesses and community organizations.” A nonprofit formed to reinvent the small newspaper business model, SCLNI was not the first attempt to “save the newspaper.” The previous owner, Sonoma West Publishers, acquired other newspapers to try and take advantage of economies of scale. It delved into digital journalism and had modest success with a direct public offering that raised $400,000 in 2018-2019. “It wasn’t enough, nor was the heroic effort of our all-volunteer board to raise funds and write grants,” Dobbs said. “We tried our best and so did our staff, but we couldn’t find a way forward. Subscriptions, advertisers, grants and donations all helped, but they never caught up to expenses,
SoCoNews
As Mark Twain would have cabled, reports of the Healdsburg Tribune’s demise were greatly exaggerated. Or as Yogi Berra famously observed at baseball’s 1973 National League pennant championship, inspiring a Lenny Kravitz song: “It ain't over till it’s over.” “The death of the Healdsburg Tribune didn't even last a week,” Patch. com’s Simone Wilson snarkily observed. There was no way to predict the surprise turn of events, of course, when last week’s Tribune went to press and its non-profit owners executed a meticulous wind-down plan that included closing the office, transitioning employees, selling off desks and office supplies and saying sayonara to a community that faithfully read the newspaper for at least a century and a half. The CEO of the Healdsburg-based North Bay Bohemian weekly,
Dan Pulcrano, read the news on April 28 and contacted the Sonoma County Local News Initiative (SCLNI) through a role email on its website, then left a voicemail message for its board president, Nancy Dobbs. That started a conversation that produced, in short order, a letter of intent and then a formal agreement. The two teams worked through the weekend. Five days after the announcement, they completed a transaction to continue publishing the Tribune, a weekly newspaper with roots in the postGold Rush 1860s. Weeklys, a group that publishes 15 weekly newspapers around the greater Bay Area, traces its roots back to the Los Gatos Weekly, founded 40 years ago. The same group bought the biweekly Sonoma County Independent in 1994, took it weekly and rebranded it as the North Bay Bohemian in 2000. Weeklys also publishes the Pacific Sun in neighboring Marin County. “We are surprised, gratified and a little astonished,” said Dobbs of SCLNI, which sold the Tribune to Weeklys. “Dan came
ON THE MOVE A late hour ownership change will keep the historic paper in print. and we were ready to end our week-to-week activities and take a few months off to reassess our viability and future.” Instead, SCLNI and Weeklys managed to pull off a last-minute save. “We’re seeing newspapers rebound and grow again as local businesses tire of fighting for little spots on tiny screens. Printed information is impactful. It shapes communities and
Skylaer Palacios Resigns
Farm Bureau will delve into water issues at summit By Barry Holtzclaw
File Photo
RESIGNED Skylaer Palacios announced her resignation from the Healdsburg City Council
at the end of a meeting on Monday, May 2, 2022.
COUNCILMEMBER CITES HOUSING INSECURITY, HARASSMENT By Will Carruthers
At a meeting on Monday, May 2, Healdsburg City Councilmember Skylaer Palacios announced her resignation from public office effective immediately. Palacios, who was elected to the council in 2020 when she was 25, said that she was leaving due to “housing instability”
and receiving harassment stemming from her decision not to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. “During my campaign I knew it was uncertain that I would be able to afford to live in Healdsburg for the duration of the four year term… However, I have also been on the receiving end of a plethora of hostile treatment, including my personal mail being opened, my car being tampered with, being asked if someone is following me, online harassment etcetera,” Palacios said in a
statement posted online. Palacios added that the recent death of former Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke caused her to reflect on “whether I was ensuring a healthy environment for myself.” “When I put it in perspective, I could either continue in my position knowing that my basic needs of housing and safety may not be met, or I can choose to advocate for myself and focus on meeting these needs,” the statement continues. ➝ Resigns, 3
delivers results,” Pulcrano said. “With this transfer of ownership, we can rest assured that the Tribune is in experienced hands, and we are celebrating this opportunity to see a newspaper continue to serve the community. We are grateful to all who helped us hang on long enough for this miracle to occur,” Dobbs said.
The Sonoma County Farm Bureau is hosting its first annual “water summit” next week at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. At the 2002 Water Summit, top state officials, winegrowers and other agricultural producers, business leaders and local officials will convene to explore the complex water-related issues facing agricultural producers in California. The topics on the summit agenda include: • California water rights • Groundwater recharge • Sustainability Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) • Environmental water policy & needs • Reclaimed & recycled water sources • The future of water regulations in California • The Potter Valley Project • Tribal rights, needs & interests • Voluntary drought initiatives
• Water conservation technology All-day sessions, 8am to 4pm, are scheduled for Tuesday, May 10 and Wednesday, May 11. Single-day registration is $65 per person; registration for both days is $100 per person. The sessions are aimed at providing information for: farmers, ranchers, growers, environmentalists, tribal representatives, rural landowners and local officials. Water Summit speakers include: 2nd District Rep. Jared Huffman, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, Board of Food and Agriculture President Don Cameron, California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson, UC Davis Prof. Roger Boulton, AgTech Insight CEO Aaron Magenheim, Chis Ott of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, California Water Quality Control Board Division Chief Matt St. John, Dan Wilson of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and ➝ Summit, 3