West Marin Citizen
| 250px | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | West Marin Citizen |
| Publisher | Linda Petersen |
| Editor | Linda Petersen |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | 2015 |
| Headquarters | 60 4th Street, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956 United States |
| Website | westmarincitizen.com |
The West Marin Citizen was a weekly newspaper based in Point Reyes Station, California, that covered the western region of Marin County. After a pilot edition, the paper published its first issue on July 5, 2007.[1] In the following years through April 2015, the newspaper engaged in a two-paper competition for limited readership and advertising dollars in a rural area where both were relatively scarce.[2]
Joel Hack launched the Citizen in reaction to the purchase of the Point Reyes Light, a long-established, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper also based in Point Reyes Station, by Robert Plotkin, who owned the paper between 2005-2010. The change in ownership, after the $500,000 sale by long-time owner and editor Dave Mitchell,[3] had led to a different editorial tone and staff changes.[4] Former Light managing editor Jim Kravets was the paper's first editor.
Contributors included members of the local Latino Photography Project, whose work ran as an ongoing series called "La Vida".[5] In August 2008, the Citizen won six awards from the National Newspaper Association based on the paper's first six months of reporting.[6][7]
In mid-2008, a group of residents formed a limited liability company with the intent of merging the Light and Citizen to create a single community-owned newspaper, but by the end of the year, could not come to terms with the Light's publisher on a price or the terms of the proposed buyout. The group, reconstituted as the Marin Media Alliance, focused its effort towards community ownership solely on the Citizen.[6][8][9][10] The effort was not successful.
In October 2010, Hack retired as editor and publisher, turning the paper over to advertising director Linda Petersen.[11] Under her watch, The Citizen leaned more toward features and reader-contributed pieces, while the Light worked on a more traditional newspaper model of reporters filing news stories.[12] But financial struggles affected both papers and left Peterson with no paid staff. In April 2015, she sold the paper to the Light for $50,000.[2]
References
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- ↑ "Nothing laid-back about paper's readers" by Peter Fimrite,San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2007, retrieved 2009-01-06.
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