West Marin Pilot

The future of journalism in West Marin

Introducing: Your community-owned newspaper

By Philip Fradkin, Steve Costa and Kirk Marckwald, West Marin Media Alliance

Competition between two local papers is rare these days. Most communities are struggling to keep even one. But here in West Marin, the competition between the West MarinCitizen and the Point Reyes Light has posed a dilemma for many of us—which one to support. 

We admire the plucky civic spirit of The Citizen, and the way it has persisted despite the financial odds.  But The Light has been a fixture here for so long we would hate to see it go, and under its present editor it better represents the community.

There are, however, two incontrovertible facts that clearly indicate West Marin will not long have such an abundance of journalistic riches.

First, both newspapers cannot economically survive in this tiny market for much longer. Secondly, the former publisher, Robert Plotkin, and husband of the current publisher of The Light has demonstrated he wants to sell the newspaper while the publisher of The Citizen, Joel Hack, has stated repeatedly he wants to keep publishing a paper in West Marin.

For merchants, the dilemma has been especially difficult. Where do they put their advertising dollars—limited in the best of times, which these definitely are not. Advertisers’ dollars, not subscriptions, finance most of a newspaper’s costs.

Some advertisers have chosen one newspaper. Others split their ads between both papers. Neither alternative is satisfactory for the advertisers or the two publishers. This situation insures, at best, two papers that lose money rather than a single one making a small profit. It could very well lead to no newspaper at all and a gaping hole in our community.

On the publishers’ side of the financial ledger, Robert has publicly admitted to losing thousands of dollars a month. The Citizen has a leaner operation and has bled less money. But it does not have the deeper financial pockets of The Light.

Recognizing this untenable situation, a number of us began working last summer to combine the two struggling papers into one that could financially survive over the long haul. Our first step was to offer to buy The Light. Had that been successful, The Citizen would also have been acquired and the two papers merged under the banner of the newest reincarnation of the Point Reyes Light.

Unfortunately, the first step was not successful. Instead, Robert Plotkin chose to publicly deride our offer in a column in the Light. He accused us of trying to lowball him and portrayed himself as determined to protect his employees and the West Marin community.

His comments, however, came after he had attempted to sell The Light to a newspaper chain over the hill, precisely what our small group feared would—and still might—occur. That action clearly indicated to us that Robert wanted out of newspapering in West Marin.

We made the offer in good faith, on sound business principles, and for the sole purpose of helping the community. Consider the following facts:

1.         When we approached Robert Plotkin about a possible purchase, we asked the former publisher and owner of an East Bay weekly to do an independent appraisal.  He studied The Light’s books and came up with an estimate, upon which we based our offer. That offer was clearly for the assets of The Light, not its liabilities that were unfathomable and would have economically sunk any succeeding publication. The identifiable assets were the name of The Light, its archives, and subscription lists. The offer did not include the Coastal Traveler, which he wanted to keep for himself and, in any case, now serves a far more affluent and widespread market than West Marin. The appraiser also studied the financial condition of The Citizen. We are bound by a nondisclosure agreement not to reveal details of these assessments.

2.         We were not going to “fire” anyone, as Robert Plotkin claimed in his column. Clearly, however, the merged paper could not guarantee employment to all staff members of both The Light and The Citizen. Some type of board – not the four of us who formed the initial limited liability corporation (LLC) – would have been formed under an as yet undetermined organizational structure and done its own hiring, possibly only of a publisher who then would have hired other employees.

3.         Plotkin said The Citizen was run by outsiders who didn’t have roots in West Marin. However, its pages are full of contributions from people who live here. The small paid staff consists of people whose commitment to this place goes back, in most cases, to before Robert’s arrival. This includes editor Jim Kravets, who was managing editor of The Light when Plotkin arrived. 

The undersigned, who consisted of the LLC formed to look into a merger, still believe that the best entity for newspaper ownership in West Marin is the community itself.  When the weekly is not just a private business but also a community trust, then we all are best served. 

Joel Hack, who founded The Citizen, agrees. He has agreed to sell his stake in The Citizen to the West Marin Media Alliance, a newly formed LLC recently established for that purpose. Given what Hack has invested in The Citizen, he says he is willing to sell at a loss. Hack believes, as we do, that West Marin needs a paper that is community owned and will be around for a very long time.

The basic idea is that persons could either purchase an interest in The Citizen at a low enough price to enable most to have an ownership stake or make a tax-deductible contribution through a 501©(3) organization. The organizational structure would balance editorial independence with sound business practices and be ultimately accountable to the community. 

Our hope is that this would not result in a muting of voices but rather the inclusion of more of them and a tone of civility that would help us deal with common problems. Additionally, what we achieve in West Marin might serve as an example of what other communities who are faced with the loss of their newspapers could accomplish. But mostly, we need to realize the current situation is untenable, and it is better that we decide our own fate rather than having it dictated to us.  

Join the open meeting to discuss the future of The West Marin Citizen and community journalism at 7 pm on Monday, March 9, 2009 at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station.