At the beginning of 2025, Nuala and I took our first tentative steps toward solidifying what had begun the previous year as a pipe dream of an idea: a worker-owned outlet where we could make journalism about the Bay Area in a fun, cool, and life-affirming way.
We pulled journalist friends into bars and cafes to whisper our dreams to each other; we drafted business plans, proposals, and one-pagers after feverishly Googling what those things had to include. And we did it concurrently with friends and comrades who were busy working on similar projects, like the Bay Area Current, the Approach, and the Oakland Review of Books. We noodled and noodled on it until it felt impossible to keep it under wraps anymore. (And to be honest, we’re still noodling! Will the noodling ever cease?!)
It’s so thrilling to create a big secret project, but it’s even more heart-pounding to reveal it to the world, as our little crew of 11 did when we launched our crowdfunding campaign this past summer. I’ll never forget the enthusiastic reaction and generosity of our community, who elevated us from “Is anyone going to care?” to “Holy shit, we can do this!!” in a span of a single week. In a time when my faith in humanity was, uh, a little shaky for countless reasons, that campaign really snapped me back.
To those early supporters: Thank you so much for believing in us, sight unseen. And thank you to our newest allies and members, who I hope we’ll continue to impress with even greater, and perhaps freakier, work to come in the new year.
That support has enabled us to do so much already, in our scant three months of operation. We dug into sexy (?) sports mascots; anime culture; sandwich terrorism; Thanksgiving on Alcatraz Island; old-school cooperatives; secret raves; airbrushing; hackathon steak; Waymo being assholes; Berkeley punk showdowns with the cops; Chicana-made ice cream; the Valkyries as WLW magnet; alt weekly history; dogs named Mochi; formerly unhoused folks finally getting to settle down; Drag Story Hours; ICE being assholes; perimenopause; the question of queer food; painting rappers; AI show flyers; and San Jose’s cultural renaissance. We started a series of guides geared toward keeping people safe and fed. We kept track of rad local events like boobie walks and neurodivergent kink workshops. We paid a freelancer to write at length about a gravesite containing a single arm.
Finally, a quick note: Our membership sale ends at midnight tonight, so if you’ve been waiting on becoming a member, now’s the time to get that sweet 15% discount on an annual subscription. (It’s just $68 — cheaper than an Oakland parking ticket!) We’re excited to do a lot more in the new year and would love to devote more people power to this project. Help us out, why don’tcha? (Or if you’re so inclined, a tax-deductible contribution to our tip jar also helps a lot!)
Thanks for sticking with us this year. See ya on the other side!
