December 17, 2024 • 29 mins
In episode twenty-eight of the Napa Valley Insider Podcast, Andrew sits down with Marc Hand, CEO of Hwy 29 Media, and head of the Napa Valley News Group, to discuss the essential role of local journalism in preserving Napa Valley’s stories and identity. From saving beloved community newspapers to launching bilingual initiatives, Marc shares his vision for sustaining trusted, hyperlocal news during challenging times.
Episode Highlights:
- Saving Napa’s Papers: Hear how Marc led the effort to save the Yountville Sun and Calistoga Tribune, keeping critical local coverage alive.
- Why Local News Matters: Marc explains how reliable journalism informs and unifies Napa’s community, from city council updates to untold human stories.
- The Bilingual Future: Learn about efforts to better serve Napa’s Latino community through dedicated bilingual reporting and outreach.
- How You Can Help: Discover the urgent need to support local journalism and how you can donate to keep Napa’s stories alive.
Support the Napa Valley News Group by donating at napavalleynewsgroup.com. Every contribution goes directly to funding journalists and preserving Napa Valley’s voice.
This episode is brought to you by Cuvée, your go-to for Napa Valley experiences.
Follow Napa Valley Insider Podcast and Cuvée on Instagram for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Don’t forget to subscribe for more inspiring stories from the people shaping Napa Valley’s future!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Napa Valley Insider podcast brought to you by Cuvée, the Napa Winery Guide in
(00:07):
partnership with Highway 29 Media.
All right, all right, all right.
Welcome back to another episode of Napa Valley Insider.
I am Andrew Allison and I'm very excited to kick off this episode of Napa Valley Insider
with a great guest.
We make this podcast in association with Highway 29 Media and so I'll let our guests introduce
(00:28):
themselves.
Who are you and what do you do?
Great.
Well, thanks so much, Andrew.
And I'm thrilled to be able to join you on this podcast and really appreciate all the
great work that you all are doing that contributes to Highway 29 Media and everything that we're
doing to try to invigorate and sustain local news.
So I'm Mark Hand and move back up to Napa Valley about eight years ago and my origins
(00:53):
go back to moving here when I was four years old from Oklahoma.
So have a split history in Napa Valley, which I love and it's so nice to be back to what
really feels like home.
And I've moved back here, you know, in part because my work is portable so I can really
live anywhere.
But grew up reading the Napa Register and sort of got my first taste of news growing
(01:14):
up here in Napa Valley.
So it's been nice to be back up here and ironically to be able to connect with people I knew from
Vishay Elementary School.
So it's fun to sort of have this long history and resurrect that history.
So you've had quite the career in media.
Can you just give us the, you know, play by play the decade by decade?
(01:35):
What was Mark Hand's career and how did you end up doing what you do now?
Yeah, well, it was fun to sit here in front of a microphone because I was saying I got
my start at College Radio at UC Santa Cruz at KZSC, the college radio station.
They're doing both a news program and also a music program.
So I got my taste of being behind the microphone and thankfully I found out that there were
(01:57):
people that were much better skilled at actually being behind the microphone.
So I really shifted my career to being one that worked on really developing media and
developing fundraising for media.
And I think the theme of my work has always been how do we both preserve and sustain local
media and whether that's radio or television or newspapers or sort of the whole gamut of
(02:21):
a, you know, when I was growing up, it was really the more traditional broadcast media
and that sort of now it's all the other pieces.
But the theme of my work has always been how do we support the development of what I feel
like is really a critical piece of the local landscape, which is local media.
So my first job out of college was getting a grant to do a oral history program called
(02:43):
Every Wrinkle Tells a Story.
So that was on the community radio station in Santa Cruz.
And then right after that started, got hired by a community development corporation in
Salinas that was setting up farm worker cooperatives.
And I got hired to start a bilingual public radio station in Salinas.
So it was one of the early stages of really developing bilingual public radio as opposed
(03:05):
to commercial radio.
So, but again, that was a good example of how important radio was both for the farm
worker community there, but also as a medium for communication between farm workers and
growers and other people in the Salinas Valley.
So it was a great launch of what's then been my running theme ever since then.
(03:27):
And so over the years, most of my work really has been in developing and rescuing mostly
on the public media side.
And more recently, in the late 90s, I started a nonprofit, co-founded a nonprofit called
Public Media Company.
And the issue that we were trying to address then is that public stations that were mostly
(03:49):
owned by colleges and universities and state governments were at risk of being sold and
they were mostly being sold to non-public radio operators.
So we set up a national entity that really worked with local organizations to be able
to help them finance and acquire local public stations when they were at risk of being sold.
(04:10):
So did that work all over the country and for 22 years.
And that still exists and it still is a very viable nonprofit.
And over the years, we did probably about $400 million in transactions and put together
a creative approach doing taxes and bond financing and helped preserve and save stations.
(04:32):
For example, here, we helped the University of Southern California buy the station that
used to be licensed to Anguind or it is licensed to Anguind, used to be owned by the college
there, and then helped them buy KDFC, the classical station.
So working with them, we helped preserve classical in San Francisco.
And we work with KQED to help them buy a station in Sacramento to be able to extend their service
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to the Sacramento area.
So we did those kinds of things literally all over the country for about 20 years.
And then the most recent incarnation has been setting up a nonprofit that's really a little
bit more focused on television.
It's called the Public Media Venture Group.
And it was established because television is moving to a whole new technology platform
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with the great marketing name of ATSC 3.0, which nobody really knows about.
But it's a really impactful new technology platform because you can take the broadcast
signal and essentially replicate an IP data delivery platform.
So it means that KQED in San Francisco could deliver a stream of software updates for cars
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at the same time they're doing their regular content or they could do emergency learning
to Napa Valley when the fires are hitting.
So it's a really pretty extraordinary new platform for television.
So the Public Media Venture Group was set up six years ago to really help public stations
work on that, decide how best to leverage it and what ways it could be used to better
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serve the local communities, but also open the door to generating new sources of revenue.
And then since then, we've expanded to look more broadly at the technology platforms for
television as technology moves to be more centralized and cloud-based.
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Link in the show notes.
Public stations have a great benefit of being strong local trusted media, but not connected
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nationally in terms of technology platforms.
So out of that led to the development of another national nonprofit that I was co-founder of
called the National Trust for Local News.
And it was established three and a half years ago with the goal of really buying and preserving
local newspapers.
So it's now the largest nonprofit owner of newspapers in the country, operating about
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65 newspapers in Colorado and Maine and Georgia, and is really almost mirroring the land trust
or the natrix insurgency as being an entity that's a nonprofit that helps buy newspapers
and preserve those newspapers and really engage local audiences.
And that's a long story to lead me to what happened here in Napa Valley, which is two
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years ago where I live here in Yontville.
The Yontville son, Sharon, put an article in the paper saying that she wanted to either
sell the paper or that she was needing to make her exit in the same week.
Pat Hampton put this similar article in the Calisoga Tribune newspaper saying that she
was planning to actually either sell it or close it by the end of that month.
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So I got my arm twisted to be able to step in and do something since I was doing that
work nationally to try to preserve the local newspapers here.
So that led to the development of Highway 29, which we set up in December of 2022 and
then raised the money substantially with help from the Napa Valley Community Foundation
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and other individual donors to be able to buy both the newspapers.
And thankfully, we haven't missed a weekly publication ever since then.
So that's, again, another volunteer effort that I do.
So I'm the, I call it interim CEO, but I guess I've been interim for two years now in board
chair.
(08:41):
And then we recently worked to set up a nonprofit corporation called the Napa Valley News Group.
So ultimately, I feel like these are best housed under nonprofits.
So we've set up a nonprofit that will enable us to solicit donations and help support the
papers that way.
So I think generally, all of us in the media world are looking at new ways to sustain local
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media, which is facing more challenges, but is in an equal sense is seen as so important
and essential to sort of the fabric and life of local communities.
So these are both my regular paid work and my volunteer work is all tied to doing what
I can to help preserve local media.
(09:25):
That is such a cool and fascinating story.
As somebody who loves media myself, I really admire the work.
I think it is very cool.
What is community building to you?
Why does local journalism matter to you?
It really is, you know, when you look at the ancient forms of communication and, you know,
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for me, it even goes back to my first job in radio, which is doing oral history.
So community building reflected in media to me is that it gives us one common source of
shared information that we can all turn to both to be informed about what's going on
in our local communities.
And for me, that was one of the big drivers for wanting to get involved with the sun is
(10:14):
I realize that I really I don't have time to go to the town council meetings or being
involved in a lot of what's happening in Yonfiel.
And absent the sun giving me that information, I wouldn't be an informed and engaged citizen
in the way that I should be.
So I think that's the key and which is why local is so important.
I think that's the key role that local media can play is it really helps not only inform
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us about local governments and budgets and all those things, but equally and probably
more important, just tell stories about the local community.
So one of the first things that people always tell me is, hey, it's good how to have all
the town council stuff.
But the first thing I read is the out and about column.
And people want to know that or they just want to know the stories about the history
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of Yonfiel.
And I think local media really can both inform but also have people feel like they're commonly
connected to something that really does tell the stories about their local communities.
I've always found value in the journalism from your writers or folks that write for
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Highway 29 and Napa News Group.
In the projects that I'm aware of, but I haven't had time to look into or I don't know anything
about it, usually things around the veterans home as just as an example in the Yonfiel
sun, there's always good coverage of what's going on there trying to bring that connective
tissue together.
(11:42):
Where do you think the shortcoming is in local news?
Where is there consistently a shortage of resource besides money and time?
What is local journalism usually not doing a great job covering?
I think it really is.
(12:03):
The challenge, unfortunately, is with all things, it's both what local journalism is
limited in covering is always tied to the resources to be able to do that.
And I think that's really where those things are tied together.
So in an ideal world, we'd like to have more journalists working here locally.
Or I talked to Jesse Duarte, who works for The Star.
(12:27):
And that's one of his frustrations is he'd like to have two or three more journalists
up in St. Lena covering everything that's going on in St. Lena.
But I think the missing piece is the ability to add more layers of journalism so that you
can do not only the weekly news and the weekly stories that are important and engaging and
interesting, but you can also do longer pieces.
(12:49):
There's no doubt longer stories that we could be spend a month exploring related to the
veterans home, for example.
So there are a number of stories like that, that having limited capacity that we really
can't devote the time needed to be able to do those stories.
And in some ways, I feel like we're fortunate because we were able to get funding from the
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Napa Valley Community Foundation to support for three years a local journalist and a wonderful
Mariela Gomez, a talented woman that we hired coming out of the USC journalism school.
And so she's able to do more of those stories.
She just did a profile on eight or 10 Latino leaders in Napa Valley.
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So those are the kind of stories that absent those additional resources, we wouldn't be
able to have.
And we've just added that recently with a UC Berkeley Cal fellow that's also a two-year
funded journalism position.
Elsa Cavazos, who's just started with us about a month ago, who will add more of a layer
to that.
But absent outside funding for that, and we just wouldn't be able to afford to sort of
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layer on one or two more journalists to fill in what the local editors are doing in Yon
Fil and Calistoga.
Wow.
Earlier, you had mentioned you had set up a bilingual opportunity in Salinas.
How are you thinking for the Yon Fil Sun or the Calistoga Tribune?
Is there an opportunity for the Latin community to get your publications in Spanish or is
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that something you're thinking about?
You know what there is, and I'm glad you asked that because one of the sort of on the top
of our priority list that we're in the process of developing now is to launch a bilingual
newsletter.
And so it won't be part of the printed publication, but it will be a bilingual weekly publication.
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We're going to start initially with a focus on Calistoga because you probably saw recently
that the demographics are continuing to shift there.
So 50% of the population in Calistoga are Latino.
And when you look at the high school, I think it's about 85%.
So we're working closely with the high school and with Olay Health and others to really
look at what are the stories that are of interest to that community.
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And I think that's probably the key difference is not just a language issue, it's not just
translating the stories that are in the Sun or the Tribune, but it really is creating
unique stories that are more relevant or of interest to or more compelling for that community.
So it really does take doing both and then conversely, as we have been doing, and doing
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more coverage of those communities in the English language newspapers.
So it really helps build a more common understanding of what oftentimes are a little bit more isolated
communities even in the same town.
And as you know, the 40% of the population in Napa Valley is Latino.
So we feel like those are stories that are important to be told both in a bilingual newsletter,
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but also reflected in our website and in the publications that we have.
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A huge portion of Napa Valley's economy is run by the Latino community.
So no, no doubt, definitely a noble cause.
How do you think you're going to move these publications forward in the future?
What are some of the things that you're really hoping to achieve in the years ahead?
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I think the biggest shift is rethinking the model for local newspapers and even the sun
is a good example of historically, for 20 years or so, Sharon was able to run the sun
by support from advertisers and mostly local advertisers and that's the substantial shift
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is that there are fewer local advertisers here in Yonfiel and it's mostly restaurants
and hotels and those kind of things that don't necessarily feel like advertising in the sun
is really reaching the audience that they want to reach.
So I think the shift that we need to figure out how best to engineer is to look at how
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is local media supported and how do we find ways to sustain it and so that's why it's
got to be a combination of certainly local advertisers and businesses but also grant
support and foundation support and donor support and literally individual membership.
So that's why we're really pushing much more on replicating a little bit more of the public
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media model which is if people believe in this then they provide donations to really
help support it.
So I think that's our if we can achieve that shift so that people feel like here in Yonfiel
we've gotten the paper for free for 23 years or so and knowing that it can't be supported
for free that there really has to be community engagement and being able to sustain the paper
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and a big factor in that is this is impacting newspapers all over the country.
People always tell me and especially when we first started you're going to keep printing
the paper aren't you?
You know we really want to have the printed version of the paper and the counter side
of that is printing costs have gone up substantially.
So that's now our largest single cost is printing the Yonfiel Sun and mailing it to the 3,500
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or so people that we get it to in Yonfiel and the surrounding area.
So finding a way to keep a printed newspaper but at the same time navigate fundraising
so that we can really generate enough revenue to be able to support people wanting a printed
paper but at the same time knowing that those costs are going up substantially.
I can't imagine the headwinds and how much work goes into the actual process of building
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and running a local newspaper.
When you think about what the local wine industry does or could do, when you think of what the
local wine industry does or could do with a local publication, where are some obvious
connective tissue that is still not being met?
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You know I think it's really a shift in thinking about local media and oftentimes both individuals
and the wineries think of specific areas of interest you know whether it's environmental
issues or sustainability issues that they tend to want to focus or health issues or
housing issues that they tend to want to fund and focus their philanthropic giving on.
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I think years ago I was at a Ford Foundation meeting with Bill Moyers and this is one of
the things that he told foundations that were gathered there is if you think you want to
focus your funding on the environment or you know on health or anything else unless you
include media in that people aren't going to know about it.
They're not going to know the stories of why that's an important issue.
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So I think that's one of the messages that I'd like to try to get out is you know everybody
should think of media as being an important component of whatever their priorities are
for funding.
It is a cornerstone of community building and the ability to syndicate messaging across
a group of people.
You can have just like a game of telephone the same people get the same message but it
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dilutes so quickly and unifying community around a source of truth like a well authored
article.
There's so much media spin in today's national news.
I think having more hyper local nonprofit journalism is a way to continue to disincentivize
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folks from misusing journalism to create spin pieces but just have more information as like
a greater group.
So I think it'd be great to hear how you think the integrity of journalism is going to change
with things like artificial intelligence or with some of the major aggregation and consolidation
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of these of these local nonprofits.
Yeah you know I think and that was well put in terms of the considerations and the issues
and you know I think we all see the implications of you know the spread of misinformation from
a number of the especially technology and media platforms and you know even down to
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next door instead of other platforms.
So I think the key is I think AI and other resources like that can really help contribute
to local journalism and I think the major shift in focus really is what can be done
locally versus what's done regionally or nationally and I think that's the you know as we see
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newspapers you know closing all over the country you know there are now a growing number of
news deserts of you know counties around the country that have no news no newspapers at
all.
So how do you think AI is going to impact a local journalist and how their workflow
changes?
It's one you know I think the theme running through looking at AI is it can be impactively
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positive or you know it has some negatives and concerns that are raised with AI.
So I think the positive is for example tools that can collect all of the press releases
in a county and help digest those and provide a summary to journalists so that instead of
plowing through.
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Time saving.
Yeah hundreds of press releases and they can do that and it can help organize information
so that the journalist is spending less time doing that or more time writing.
So I think the extent that we can develop and use tools like that and that help support
journalism but you know the key thing is that we don't want AI to replace journalists.
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Sure.
You know I think it's got to have the human voice and the human perspective on storytelling
and so if we can use them as really incredible tools to gather all the data.
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(24:13):
TaxID 93-466-2744.
Cheers.
I think that many folks don't recognize that the worst AI is going to be is what AI is today
and it is a consistent opportunity to improve and get better as the technology improves
and gets better.
There's a few ways our business uses AI to really improve some more extremes and really
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consolidate information and just get the information to the team members that need it more readily.
I can imagine there's a ton of stuff for a journalist that could benefit from that.
Where I really see efficiency gained is sitting at very long governmental meetings or sitting
through long speeches or anything that could just consolidate or maximize the key information
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to give the writers just more leverage for their time so they're not spending so much
time to get the one line that they're looking for.
And so I do think you're right.
It's not going to change the need for a local journalist, but I think it will definitely
improve the efficiency of a journalist's time, not just helping supporting on the writing
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and the editing side, also on the information gathering side.
I think that's the perfect point of that.
A good example is I just went to the 150th celebration of the same Lina star and they
were talking about the not too distant days of I think in early to mid 2000, 2005, 2006.
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When you look back then, they had 13 staff people working for the star.
Now there's one.
So you look at just the volume of information that Jesse has to go through to report there
or Kim here in Johnville or Danielle up in Calistoga.
When you have one or two journalists covering even on a weekly basis of town, that's a huge
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amount of information to have to sort through and write the story in and making sure that
you're getting the quotes correct for the town council meetings or anything like that.
So I think that really is being able to have tools that help speed up that process would
be critical.
What would you tell somebody who is very interested in either journalism or becoming an editor
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or a writer or a reporter or a gonzo journalist, what would you tell somebody pursuing an education
or a career in journalism today?
I think it is a great opportunity and the opportunity really in my mind rests with what
you can do locally.
I think that there's always been that attraction to kind of work my way through markets from
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a small size market up to a larger market.
And I think one of the people we worked with, Sasha Paulson said that one of the impactful
lessons that she got coming out of UC Berkeley Journalism School was a professor there that
said all of you probably want to graduate and aspire to work for the New York Times,
but the most impactful role that you can play and the most satisfying is being a local journalist.
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So I think people coming out of those environments and really integrating into the local community
and really reflecting sort of the local stories that people want to hear, that could be ultimately
the most fulfilling and the most impactful in terms of how you really shift a community
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and sort of build that kind of fabric of communication and a community.
And I think certainly one of the things that we're seeing is the blurring of the distinctions
historically of print and digital and radio and television and knowing that as a journalist,
you really have to be adept at all those things.
You have to be doing as you all are, audio and video and print and all that is what's
(28:04):
a key part of how people consume media these days.
So I think looking at YouTube is the largest aggregate of audiences in the world.
So journalists really have to be mindful of how they really leverage all those tools.
I really love all the work that you're doing.
Thank you so much for coming on.
For those that want to get a hold of you or would like to donate to Napa News Group and
(28:29):
gain the benefits of a donation to a 503C nonprofit, where or how can they do that?
You know, the easiest way is to go to the website Napa Valley News Group and there will
be a prominent donate button there.
And certainly if anybody wants to reach me, it's mark at highway29.com.
So happy to respond to everything.
(28:53):
And like the 79 year old that didn't get her digital copy yesterday, so I had to send her
a PDF copy because she said, I'm 79.
I don't know about about technology.
So please send me my newspaper.
Well, I again, I've said it again, but I'll tell you again, I really admire the work that
you do.
So thank you so much for jumping on this episode of Napa Valley Insider.
(29:14):
Mark, we appreciate you.
I'm Andrew Allison.
I'm the CEO of Kuve.
This is another episode of Napa Valley Insider.
Thank you very much.
Cheers.
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(29:35):
Cheers.
This is the Napa Valley Insider podcast brought to you by Cuvée, the Napa Winery Guide in
(00:07):
partnership with Highway 29 Media.
All right, all right, all right.
Welcome back to another episode of Napa Valley Insider.
I am Andrew Allison and I'm very excited to kick off this episode of Napa Valley Insider
with a great guest.
We make this podcast in association with Highway 29 Media and so I'll let our guests introduce
(00:28):
themselves.
Who are you and what do you do?
Great.
Well, thanks so much, Andrew.
And I'm thrilled to be able to join you on this podcast and really appreciate all the
great work that you all are doing that contributes to Highway 29 Media and everything that we're
doing to try to invigorate and sustain local news.
So I'm Mark Hand and move back up to Napa Valley about eight years ago and my origins
(00:53):
go back to moving here when I was four years old from Oklahoma.
So have a split history in Napa Valley, which I love and it's so nice to be back to what
really feels like home.
And I've moved back here, you know, in part because my work is portable so I can really
live anywhere.
But grew up reading the Napa Register and sort of got my first taste of news growing
(01:14):
up here in Napa Valley.
So it's been nice to be back up here and ironically to be able to connect with people I knew from
Vishay Elementary School.
So it's fun to sort of have this long history and resurrect that history.
So you've had quite the career in media.
Can you just give us the, you know, play by play the decade by decade?
(01:35):
What was Mark Hand's career and how did you end up doing what you do now?
Yeah, well, it was fun to sit here in front of a microphone because I was saying I got
my start at College Radio at UC Santa Cruz at KZSC, the college radio station.
They're doing both a news program and also a music program.
So I got my taste of being behind the microphone and thankfully I found out that there were
(01:57):
people that were much better skilled at actually being behind the microphone.
So I really shifted my career to being one that worked on really developing media and
developing fundraising for media.
And I think the theme of my work has always been how do we both preserve and sustain local
media and whether that's radio or television or newspapers or sort of the whole gamut of
(02:21):
a, you know, when I was growing up, it was really the more traditional broadcast media
and that sort of now it's all the other pieces.
But the theme of my work has always been how do we support the development of what I feel
like is really a critical piece of the local landscape, which is local media.
So my first job out of college was getting a grant to do a oral history program called
(02:43):
Every Wrinkle Tells a Story.
So that was on the community radio station in Santa Cruz.
And then right after that started, got hired by a community development corporation in
Salinas that was setting up farm worker cooperatives.
And I got hired to start a bilingual public radio station in Salinas.
So it was one of the early stages of really developing bilingual public radio as opposed
(03:05):
to commercial radio.
So, but again, that was a good example of how important radio was both for the farm
worker community there, but also as a medium for communication between farm workers and
growers and other people in the Salinas Valley.
So it was a great launch of what's then been my running theme ever since then.
(03:27):
And so over the years, most of my work really has been in developing and rescuing mostly
on the public media side.
And more recently, in the late 90s, I started a nonprofit, co-founded a nonprofit called
Public Media Company.
And the issue that we were trying to address then is that public stations that were mostly
(03:49):
owned by colleges and universities and state governments were at risk of being sold and
they were mostly being sold to non-public radio operators.
So we set up a national entity that really worked with local organizations to be able
to help them finance and acquire local public stations when they were at risk of being sold.
(04:10):
So did that work all over the country and for 22 years.
And that still exists and it still is a very viable nonprofit.
And over the years, we did probably about $400 million in transactions and put together
a creative approach doing taxes and bond financing and helped preserve and save stations.
(04:32):
For example, here, we helped the University of Southern California buy the station that
used to be licensed to Anguind or it is licensed to Anguind, used to be owned by the college
there, and then helped them buy KDFC, the classical station.
So working with them, we helped preserve classical in San Francisco.
And we work with KQED to help them buy a station in Sacramento to be able to extend their service
(04:56):
to the Sacramento area.
So we did those kinds of things literally all over the country for about 20 years.
And then the most recent incarnation has been setting up a nonprofit that's really a little
bit more focused on television.
It's called the Public Media Venture Group.
And it was established because television is moving to a whole new technology platform
(05:18):
with the great marketing name of ATSC 3.0, which nobody really knows about.
But it's a really impactful new technology platform because you can take the broadcast
signal and essentially replicate an IP data delivery platform.
So it means that KQED in San Francisco could deliver a stream of software updates for cars
(05:42):
at the same time they're doing their regular content or they could do emergency learning
to Napa Valley when the fires are hitting.
So it's a really pretty extraordinary new platform for television.
So the Public Media Venture Group was set up six years ago to really help public stations
work on that, decide how best to leverage it and what ways it could be used to better
(06:05):
serve the local communities, but also open the door to generating new sources of revenue.
And then since then, we've expanded to look more broadly at the technology platforms for
television as technology moves to be more centralized and cloud-based.
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(06:28):
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Link in the show notes.
Public stations have a great benefit of being strong local trusted media, but not connected
(06:50):
nationally in terms of technology platforms.
So out of that led to the development of another national nonprofit that I was co-founder of
called the National Trust for Local News.
And it was established three and a half years ago with the goal of really buying and preserving
local newspapers.
So it's now the largest nonprofit owner of newspapers in the country, operating about
(07:13):
65 newspapers in Colorado and Maine and Georgia, and is really almost mirroring the land trust
or the natrix insurgency as being an entity that's a nonprofit that helps buy newspapers
and preserve those newspapers and really engage local audiences.
And that's a long story to lead me to what happened here in Napa Valley, which is two
(07:37):
years ago where I live here in Yontville.
The Yontville son, Sharon, put an article in the paper saying that she wanted to either
sell the paper or that she was needing to make her exit in the same week.
Pat Hampton put this similar article in the Calisoga Tribune newspaper saying that she
was planning to actually either sell it or close it by the end of that month.
(07:59):
So I got my arm twisted to be able to step in and do something since I was doing that
work nationally to try to preserve the local newspapers here.
So that led to the development of Highway 29, which we set up in December of 2022 and
then raised the money substantially with help from the Napa Valley Community Foundation
(08:20):
and other individual donors to be able to buy both the newspapers.
And thankfully, we haven't missed a weekly publication ever since then.
So that's, again, another volunteer effort that I do.
So I'm the, I call it interim CEO, but I guess I've been interim for two years now in board
chair.
(08:41):
And then we recently worked to set up a nonprofit corporation called the Napa Valley News Group.
So ultimately, I feel like these are best housed under nonprofits.
So we've set up a nonprofit that will enable us to solicit donations and help support the
papers that way.
So I think generally, all of us in the media world are looking at new ways to sustain local
(09:04):
media, which is facing more challenges, but is in an equal sense is seen as so important
and essential to sort of the fabric and life of local communities.
So these are both my regular paid work and my volunteer work is all tied to doing what
I can to help preserve local media.
(09:25):
That is such a cool and fascinating story.
As somebody who loves media myself, I really admire the work.
I think it is very cool.
What is community building to you?
Why does local journalism matter to you?
It really is, you know, when you look at the ancient forms of communication and, you know,
(09:50):
for me, it even goes back to my first job in radio, which is doing oral history.
So community building reflected in media to me is that it gives us one common source of
shared information that we can all turn to both to be informed about what's going on
in our local communities.
And for me, that was one of the big drivers for wanting to get involved with the sun is
(10:14):
I realize that I really I don't have time to go to the town council meetings or being
involved in a lot of what's happening in Yonfiel.
And absent the sun giving me that information, I wouldn't be an informed and engaged citizen
in the way that I should be.
So I think that's the key and which is why local is so important.
I think that's the key role that local media can play is it really helps not only inform
(10:39):
us about local governments and budgets and all those things, but equally and probably
more important, just tell stories about the local community.
So one of the first things that people always tell me is, hey, it's good how to have all
the town council stuff.
But the first thing I read is the out and about column.
And people want to know that or they just want to know the stories about the history
(11:01):
of Yonfiel.
And I think local media really can both inform but also have people feel like they're commonly
connected to something that really does tell the stories about their local communities.
I've always found value in the journalism from your writers or folks that write for
(11:22):
Highway 29 and Napa News Group.
In the projects that I'm aware of, but I haven't had time to look into or I don't know anything
about it, usually things around the veterans home as just as an example in the Yonfiel
sun, there's always good coverage of what's going on there trying to bring that connective
tissue together.
(11:42):
Where do you think the shortcoming is in local news?
Where is there consistently a shortage of resource besides money and time?
What is local journalism usually not doing a great job covering?
I think it really is.
(12:03):
The challenge, unfortunately, is with all things, it's both what local journalism is
limited in covering is always tied to the resources to be able to do that.
And I think that's really where those things are tied together.
So in an ideal world, we'd like to have more journalists working here locally.
Or I talked to Jesse Duarte, who works for The Star.
(12:27):
And that's one of his frustrations is he'd like to have two or three more journalists
up in St. Lena covering everything that's going on in St. Lena.
But I think the missing piece is the ability to add more layers of journalism so that you
can do not only the weekly news and the weekly stories that are important and engaging and
interesting, but you can also do longer pieces.
(12:49):
There's no doubt longer stories that we could be spend a month exploring related to the
veterans home, for example.
So there are a number of stories like that, that having limited capacity that we really
can't devote the time needed to be able to do those stories.
And in some ways, I feel like we're fortunate because we were able to get funding from the
(13:13):
Napa Valley Community Foundation to support for three years a local journalist and a wonderful
Mariela Gomez, a talented woman that we hired coming out of the USC journalism school.
And so she's able to do more of those stories.
She just did a profile on eight or 10 Latino leaders in Napa Valley.
(13:37):
So those are the kind of stories that absent those additional resources, we wouldn't be
able to have.
And we've just added that recently with a UC Berkeley Cal fellow that's also a two-year
funded journalism position.
Elsa Cavazos, who's just started with us about a month ago, who will add more of a layer
to that.
But absent outside funding for that, and we just wouldn't be able to afford to sort of
(14:00):
layer on one or two more journalists to fill in what the local editors are doing in Yon
Fil and Calistoga.
Wow.
Earlier, you had mentioned you had set up a bilingual opportunity in Salinas.
How are you thinking for the Yon Fil Sun or the Calistoga Tribune?
Is there an opportunity for the Latin community to get your publications in Spanish or is
(14:23):
that something you're thinking about?
You know what there is, and I'm glad you asked that because one of the sort of on the top
of our priority list that we're in the process of developing now is to launch a bilingual
newsletter.
And so it won't be part of the printed publication, but it will be a bilingual weekly publication.
(14:43):
We're going to start initially with a focus on Calistoga because you probably saw recently
that the demographics are continuing to shift there.
So 50% of the population in Calistoga are Latino.
And when you look at the high school, I think it's about 85%.
So we're working closely with the high school and with Olay Health and others to really
look at what are the stories that are of interest to that community.
(15:06):
And I think that's probably the key difference is not just a language issue, it's not just
translating the stories that are in the Sun or the Tribune, but it really is creating
unique stories that are more relevant or of interest to or more compelling for that community.
So it really does take doing both and then conversely, as we have been doing, and doing
(15:30):
more coverage of those communities in the English language newspapers.
So it really helps build a more common understanding of what oftentimes are a little bit more isolated
communities even in the same town.
And as you know, the 40% of the population in Napa Valley is Latino.
So we feel like those are stories that are important to be told both in a bilingual newsletter,
(15:52):
but also reflected in our website and in the publications that we have.
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A huge portion of Napa Valley's economy is run by the Latino community.
So no, no doubt, definitely a noble cause.
How do you think you're going to move these publications forward in the future?
What are some of the things that you're really hoping to achieve in the years ahead?
(17:00):
I think the biggest shift is rethinking the model for local newspapers and even the sun
is a good example of historically, for 20 years or so, Sharon was able to run the sun
by support from advertisers and mostly local advertisers and that's the substantial shift
(17:21):
is that there are fewer local advertisers here in Yonfiel and it's mostly restaurants
and hotels and those kind of things that don't necessarily feel like advertising in the sun
is really reaching the audience that they want to reach.
So I think the shift that we need to figure out how best to engineer is to look at how
(17:42):
is local media supported and how do we find ways to sustain it and so that's why it's
got to be a combination of certainly local advertisers and businesses but also grant
support and foundation support and donor support and literally individual membership.
So that's why we're really pushing much more on replicating a little bit more of the public
(18:04):
media model which is if people believe in this then they provide donations to really
help support it.
So I think that's our if we can achieve that shift so that people feel like here in Yonfiel
we've gotten the paper for free for 23 years or so and knowing that it can't be supported
for free that there really has to be community engagement and being able to sustain the paper
(18:28):
and a big factor in that is this is impacting newspapers all over the country.
People always tell me and especially when we first started you're going to keep printing
the paper aren't you?
You know we really want to have the printed version of the paper and the counter side
of that is printing costs have gone up substantially.
So that's now our largest single cost is printing the Yonfiel Sun and mailing it to the 3,500
(18:53):
or so people that we get it to in Yonfiel and the surrounding area.
So finding a way to keep a printed newspaper but at the same time navigate fundraising
so that we can really generate enough revenue to be able to support people wanting a printed
paper but at the same time knowing that those costs are going up substantially.
I can't imagine the headwinds and how much work goes into the actual process of building
(19:20):
and running a local newspaper.
When you think about what the local wine industry does or could do, when you think of what the
local wine industry does or could do with a local publication, where are some obvious
connective tissue that is still not being met?
(19:41):
You know I think it's really a shift in thinking about local media and oftentimes both individuals
and the wineries think of specific areas of interest you know whether it's environmental
issues or sustainability issues that they tend to want to focus or health issues or
housing issues that they tend to want to fund and focus their philanthropic giving on.
(20:06):
I think years ago I was at a Ford Foundation meeting with Bill Moyers and this is one of
the things that he told foundations that were gathered there is if you think you want to
focus your funding on the environment or you know on health or anything else unless you
include media in that people aren't going to know about it.
They're not going to know the stories of why that's an important issue.
(20:27):
So I think that's one of the messages that I'd like to try to get out is you know everybody
should think of media as being an important component of whatever their priorities are
for funding.
It is a cornerstone of community building and the ability to syndicate messaging across
a group of people.
You can have just like a game of telephone the same people get the same message but it
(20:51):
dilutes so quickly and unifying community around a source of truth like a well authored
article.
There's so much media spin in today's national news.
I think having more hyper local nonprofit journalism is a way to continue to disincentivize
(21:14):
folks from misusing journalism to create spin pieces but just have more information as like
a greater group.
So I think it'd be great to hear how you think the integrity of journalism is going to change
with things like artificial intelligence or with some of the major aggregation and consolidation
(21:36):
of these of these local nonprofits.
Yeah you know I think and that was well put in terms of the considerations and the issues
and you know I think we all see the implications of you know the spread of misinformation from
a number of the especially technology and media platforms and you know even down to
(22:02):
next door instead of other platforms.
So I think the key is I think AI and other resources like that can really help contribute
to local journalism and I think the major shift in focus really is what can be done
locally versus what's done regionally or nationally and I think that's the you know as we see
(22:22):
newspapers you know closing all over the country you know there are now a growing number of
news deserts of you know counties around the country that have no news no newspapers at
all.
So how do you think AI is going to impact a local journalist and how their workflow
changes?
It's one you know I think the theme running through looking at AI is it can be impactively
(22:48):
positive or you know it has some negatives and concerns that are raised with AI.
So I think the positive is for example tools that can collect all of the press releases
in a county and help digest those and provide a summary to journalists so that instead of
plowing through.
(23:09):
Time saving.
Yeah hundreds of press releases and they can do that and it can help organize information
so that the journalist is spending less time doing that or more time writing.
So I think the extent that we can develop and use tools like that and that help support
journalism but you know the key thing is that we don't want AI to replace journalists.
(23:29):
Sure.
You know I think it's got to have the human voice and the human perspective on storytelling
and so if we can use them as really incredible tools to gather all the data.
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(23:52):
donation goes directly to supporting Napa Valley's news and journalists.
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(24:13):
TaxID 93-466-2744.
Cheers.
I think that many folks don't recognize that the worst AI is going to be is what AI is today
and it is a consistent opportunity to improve and get better as the technology improves
and gets better.
There's a few ways our business uses AI to really improve some more extremes and really
(24:38):
consolidate information and just get the information to the team members that need it more readily.
I can imagine there's a ton of stuff for a journalist that could benefit from that.
Where I really see efficiency gained is sitting at very long governmental meetings or sitting
through long speeches or anything that could just consolidate or maximize the key information
(25:03):
to give the writers just more leverage for their time so they're not spending so much
time to get the one line that they're looking for.
And so I do think you're right.
It's not going to change the need for a local journalist, but I think it will definitely
improve the efficiency of a journalist's time, not just helping supporting on the writing
(25:25):
and the editing side, also on the information gathering side.
I think that's the perfect point of that.
A good example is I just went to the 150th celebration of the same Lina star and they
were talking about the not too distant days of I think in early to mid 2000, 2005, 2006.
(25:48):
When you look back then, they had 13 staff people working for the star.
Now there's one.
So you look at just the volume of information that Jesse has to go through to report there
or Kim here in Johnville or Danielle up in Calistoga.
When you have one or two journalists covering even on a weekly basis of town, that's a huge
(26:10):
amount of information to have to sort through and write the story in and making sure that
you're getting the quotes correct for the town council meetings or anything like that.
So I think that really is being able to have tools that help speed up that process would
be critical.
What would you tell somebody who is very interested in either journalism or becoming an editor
(26:32):
or a writer or a reporter or a gonzo journalist, what would you tell somebody pursuing an education
or a career in journalism today?
I think it is a great opportunity and the opportunity really in my mind rests with what
you can do locally.
I think that there's always been that attraction to kind of work my way through markets from
(26:57):
a small size market up to a larger market.
And I think one of the people we worked with, Sasha Paulson said that one of the impactful
lessons that she got coming out of UC Berkeley Journalism School was a professor there that
said all of you probably want to graduate and aspire to work for the New York Times,
but the most impactful role that you can play and the most satisfying is being a local journalist.
(27:19):
So I think people coming out of those environments and really integrating into the local community
and really reflecting sort of the local stories that people want to hear, that could be ultimately
the most fulfilling and the most impactful in terms of how you really shift a community
(27:39):
and sort of build that kind of fabric of communication and a community.
And I think certainly one of the things that we're seeing is the blurring of the distinctions
historically of print and digital and radio and television and knowing that as a journalist,
you really have to be adept at all those things.
You have to be doing as you all are, audio and video and print and all that is what's
(28:04):
a key part of how people consume media these days.
So I think looking at YouTube is the largest aggregate of audiences in the world.
So journalists really have to be mindful of how they really leverage all those tools.
I really love all the work that you're doing.
Thank you so much for coming on.
For those that want to get a hold of you or would like to donate to Napa News Group and
(28:29):
gain the benefits of a donation to a 503C nonprofit, where or how can they do that?
You know, the easiest way is to go to the website Napa Valley News Group and there will
be a prominent donate button there.
And certainly if anybody wants to reach me, it's mark at highway29.com.
So happy to respond to everything.
(28:53):
And like the 79 year old that didn't get her digital copy yesterday, so I had to send her
a PDF copy because she said, I'm 79.
I don't know about about technology.
So please send me my newspaper.
Well, I again, I've said it again, but I'll tell you again, I really admire the work that
you do.
So thank you so much for jumping on this episode of Napa Valley Insider.
(29:14):
Mark, we appreciate you.
I'm Andrew Allison.
I'm the CEO of Kuve.
This is another episode of Napa Valley Insider.
Thank you very much.
Cheers.
The Napa Valley Insider podcast has been brought to you by Kuve, the Napa winery guide.
Download the app for iPhone today and start planning your perfect wine country adventure.
Learn more at kuveapp.com.
(29:35):
Cheers.
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