But there was someone listening at the meetings and taking notes at the protests. A band of locals, many of them former employees of the former community newspaper came together with a vision of a fresh start. Enthusiasm ignited the flames of passion. “Yes, we can.”
At a dramatic and seminal meeting of like-minded folks at the Bear Valley Visitor Center picnic tables the day before Memorial Day weekend in 2007, a pact sprouted. The community was clear about what it wanted in its newspaper; the team took it as gospel and set to work with a mandate. Read more...
A pilot edition hit the streets of West Marin during Western Weekend one week later. The Pilot asked readers to suggest a name for the publication. Folks were asked to become contributors and reporters.
The Pilot promised a weekly newspaper to begin within a month, July 5, 2007. Hundreds signed up for subscriptions before the first edition of the as yet unnamed paper. Scores donated start-up money. Advertisers signed on. Many more sent good wishes and asked to have their names appear in print in the first edition as supporters.
The following weeks saw an increasing number of subscribers and readers. By December The Citizen staff started a magazine aimed at visitors to fill yet another hole left by an earlier quarterly. The Marin Coast Guide promised to supplement The Citizen’s income.
The National Newspaper Association awarded The Citizen six national awards for excellence in August 2008 (for 2007 articles), setting a precedent for a 6-month old newspaper of its size.
In May of 2008, Publisher Joel Hack announced his goal of recreating the West Marin Citizen as a community-owned newspaper. His stated goal was to place ownership in the hands of the community so no single individual had the power to ignore the community’s voice. Discussions started to find a legal structure.
About the same time some community members suggested the PRL and The Citizen merge. Some questioned whether the West Marin community had the resources to support two newspapers. An independent group of residents formed a LLC to explore this alternative. The long-range goal remained the same: to transform into a community-owned newspaper.
The group of citizens approached other residents to raise funds for the anticipated asking price. Many pledged substantial sums. After months of discussions, the publisher of the PRL and this group of residents could not agree on a price.
Now, the LLC will move to refocus on the original objective: transforming The Citizen into a community -owned newspaper.
Editor Jim Kravets, a staff and a squadron of volunteers regularly present news, photos and voices of the West Marin Community. The Citizen is not a traditional newspaper presenting the viewpoint of its profit- or glory-minded owners. From its small beginning around a picnic table at Bear Valley, it’s been guided by a belief in inclusion, The Citizen family grew to become the Voice of West Marin citizens.
With so many community leaders and citizens writing and supporting it, this printed-on-newsprint paper is far greater than the sum of its collective parts: The Voice of West Marin.
Joel Hack, West Marin Citizen Publisher, Point Reyes Station
