As this community has evolved, so has the

Sixteen years ago I stepped into an ink-stained office in Carmel and took ownership of a tourist rag about to cease publication. I hoped to take that publication and turn it into something.

The idea of creating a start-up local newspaper seems unbelievably risky to me, in hindsight. What was I thinking? The Herald and Californian were both strong local dailies, clearly prosperous. The Review, Monterey Life, Carmel Pine Cone, Shopper, and Fort Ord Panorama were all sizeable publications, too, and fulfilling many needs for local readers.

But I had a sense that Monterey County needed something different, bolder, serious and unpredictable. Riskier.

It was all still uncharted territory for alternative newsweeklies back then. Even if their journalism was solid, and the look was edgy and quirky, most weeklies were losing money. And Monterey County was at that time an unlikely home for an edgy, quirky weekly, with no major local university and a big active military base. I was advised by publishers in other towns to avoid losing my shirt and to go elsewhere.

But I was young, didn’t know any better, and needed a job.

In the early years we’d publish a story that made us proud—only to have the next week’s issue fall apart hours before going to press. We’d bring in a new advertiser only to have another file for Chapter 11. Being provocative made us new friends, but cost us some too.

What little money did roll in went out before I could pay the staff on time. Our printer, six hours to the north, would frequently miss his delivery time, sometimes by a day.

The staff, as you’d expect, was inexperienced, and our old personnel files—and my head—are filled with memories of the many who passed through our doors. In 1989 our number one advertising salesperson failed to show up for work one day and phoned me to say that she’d been “kidnapped.” She never returned. One Saturday I awakened to see, in the Monterey Herald’s cover photo, taken the previous afternoon at the Pebble Beach Challenge tennis tournament, all four of our advertising sales reps, enjoying the sun and a little tennis in the middle of the workday.

Fortunately, the Weekly grew, a step at a time, and both of us are stronger and wiser thanks to those formative years. Those of you who know the staff today will understand why I’m so appreciative and proud: the Weekly is bubbling over with an outstanding team of smart, ambitious, and seasoned journalists and newspaper professionals. We’re no longer that kid with training wheels—hey, we’re sixteen!

And in these years the Weekly has become the biggest independent media enterprise in the county.

Our weekly readership exceeds 100,000 local adults. We’ve won more than fifty awards—national, state, regional and local—for Public Service, news reporting, writing, investigative stories, agricultural reporting, arts and culture coverage, photography, editorial design, advertising design.

We sent a reporter to Kuwait during Desert Storm and were the only local media, and the first metro weekly in the nation, to send a reporter to this Iraq war.

We have distribution that covers most of the county at more than 1,000 locations, a great graphic design department, and advertising that works. (I know this first-hand: I just sold a car and a refrigerator in two days after placing a classified ad!)

Our mission—To inspire independent thinking and conscious action, etc.—serves as an inspiration and a challenge to our entire staff. It’s a benchmark for us to measure our journalism, our community service, and our own internal organizational success.

This mission applies to both the newspaper and our community projects. One example I’m particularly proud of: since 2000, the Monterey County Weekly Community Fund has raised over $200,000 from readers and local foundations and contributed to local non-profits. With this money we’ve established the Monterey County Farm-To-School Partnership at CSUMB, a program designed to connect local farmers with local schools to ensure our school kids are eating healthier food.

What’s next for the Weekly? That’s anyone’s guess, because we reflect the richness and diversity of this community and report on its changes as they’re happening.

I’ve been witness to a local revolution of sorts in our sixteen years: Fort Ord’s closure. The shift from abundant, cheap housing to the most expensive housing in the nation. The relentless pressure from developers. The rise of CSUMB. The growth of the Latino community in population and political leadership. The revitalization of Old Town Monterey and Cannery Row. The establishment of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary. The boom and bust of Silicon Valley and its impact on our local economy. The decline in the public’s trust in local government. Earthquakes, fires and floods.

One of the big surprises has been the number of changes to the local media. Partly due to media consolidation, or the rise of corporate media, there have been over five different editors and publishers at both the Salinas Californian and Monterey County Herald since my first days at the Weekly. Similar turnover has occurred at local TV and radio stations as their ownership as been consolidated. I never anticipated in 1988 that one day—so soon—I would become the senior-most media executive in the community.

Our mission has become that much more important. We don’t serve the financial managers on Wall Street: We serve you—our readers, our local community.

This newspaper is the essence of a free press, and from that place we’ve challenged power brokers and demanded openness from our government and higher standards of behavior from elected officials. We’ve been forthright and honest in our reporting, even when the people we’re reporting on are our neighbors, or even if we hear about it from our advertisers. Our independence has allowed us to take chances, whether on a story about a garage band or a political demonstration. We offer reflection on key issues facing Monterey County, and encourage dialogue and understanding, even when it would be easier to turn the other way.

I’m proud that the Weekly is tenacious and that we’re here to stay.

Thank you all, readers and advertisers, critics and supporters, friends and family, for all you’ve provided to enable Monterey County Weekly to thrive throughout its first 16 years. And please, stay connected with us: send us a letter to the editor, run a classified ad, or just continue to pick us up every Thursday. And live a little.

Bradley Zeve is the Founder, Executive Editor & CEO of the Monterey County Weekly.