Today, we’re celebrating the launch of a new news site, Salinas Valley Now.

Today is a great day. 

Erik Cushman here, delighted to inform you that today, we have launched a brand-new, daily, digital newsletter and website, Salinas Valley Now.

Salinas Valley communities are facing many of the most urgent problems experienced anywhere in California—housing affordability, access to health care, low-wage jobs and workforce challenges, technology dislocation, child care obstacles, public safety threats and most recently, the upheaval of the social order as a result of federal immigration policies. 

These are urgent issues that deserve thoughtful media coverage, but the once-daily, corporate-owned Salinas Californian has essentially abandoned Salinas.

We are going to remedy that with Salinas Valley Now.

Salinas Valley Now will be a close facsimile of Monterey County Now, the award-winning website and newsletter from Monterey County Weekly. (Thank you for subscribing and for reading.) As a reader of Monterey County Now, you know the paper has long covered the county, including the Salinas Valley, with 20 percent of print issues distributed in this market. But for all intents and purposes, Salinas and the Salinas Valley do not have a dedicated news source that they can claim as their own. That is the change we hope to bring to the community.

We have hired three additional people to report, edit and produce the newsletter and website. Salinas Valley Now is a daily digital news source comprising a newsletter with three or four news stories sent out via email and WhatsApp every weekday afternoon, in English and in Spanish, all available for free. These newsletters will showcase the top stories from the companion website, salinasvalleynow.com, also available in both English and Spanish.

Salinas Valley Now will feature well-reported and edited news stories. It will showcase the people, politics and culture that make this such a vibrant community. It will expand upon the type of coverage our readers are used to in Monterey County Now and Monterey County Weekly. 

Just like with Monterey County Now, Salinas Valley Now is here to serve our readers. Please encourage friends and colleagues to visit the website, sign up for the newsletter via email and/or WhatsApp and to send in story tips, feedback and ideas. As always, we welcome dialogue with our readers.

We are bullish on the future of local journalism in our county. Thank you for reading and participating in this journey, and welcome to Salinas Valley Now.