By Anna Daniels
Nigel Howe
Creative Commons
On June 4, 2012 the San Diego Free Press made its very first foray into the provision of grassroots news and progressive views. We launched as an all volunteer effort to promote citizen journalism and have continued to operate on a volunteer basis since. Have you noticed that the site is ad free? We decided early on to reject sponsored content.
These defining characteristics make us unique as an alternative media platform. While we embrace a broad array of progressive values–and make that clear to readers–the content we provide is not driven by funding or sponsor expectations. We’ve got around $580 in the bank folks.
Most of those donations are in $5 to $25 increments and we are grateful for every one of them. Your donations buy us the basic technology and a remarkable degree of independence.
Our indisputable strength arises from the commitment of the editorial board and contributors. We’ve published 4,385 articles over the past three years. The majority of those articles are original content. John Lawrence, Jim Miller and Ernie McCray have contributed on a weekly basis and Judi Curry on a consistent basis since we launched. Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes has submitted a weekly poem for two years now and SDFP editor Doug Porter has written an astounding 920 articles.
It is difficult to put a dollar value on the contributions of citizen journalists because the compensation of journalists and writers in general is in such flux. It is much easier to assign a dollar value to the time SDFP editor Patty Jones spent updating our site to a more mobile friendly platform without throwing those readers to the curb who come to the site through the home page. Our bank balance wouldn’t begin to cover the $5,000 worth of time she put into that migration and that is a low ball number.
Afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted
The commitment is best measured by the content provided rather than the number of articles published. The point of citizen journalism is to provide a perspective of what is going on in the world from the grassroots up. We operate in the fraught world in which established, institutional power and ordinary people– who are often left powerless by design– collide. We consistently ask “Which side are you on?” and attempt to make a compelling case for how that should be answered.
This past year we ran a Democratic Woman’s Club series entitled “Who Runs San Diego?” Relationships and money trails tell us who wields the power in our community is the opening line that framed the series. Lead writer Linda Perine and guest contributors drilled down into the relationships and money trails, writing about Belmont Park, the Lincoln Club, TOT taxes, the media, Sea World and the Convention Center expansion.
In a more informal way, SDFP editors and contributors continue to keep the question of who runs San Diego at the forefront. Editor Brent Beltrán assembled a stellar group of writers last year who took on the issue of Prop B and C–Barrio Logan’s community plan– that was defeated through a city-wide referendum effort lead by the usual suspects.
Editor Frank Gormlie has initiated an in-depth ongoing analysis of proposed development in Mission Valley. Editors Anna Daniels and Doug Porter and contributors Norma Damashek, Jay Powell and Jim Bliesner have taken on the issue of Civic San Diego.
It is an interesting and illuminating exercise to evaluate the ability and willingness of other San Diego media platforms to take on the issue of who holds power here, how it is maintained and who is left out, particularly when you factor in the resources at the disposal of other media. That being said, we respect a number of very fine journalists and writers from those same media and rely upon them for information they provide.
Chomsky and Cheese–salons, field trips, ed board meetings and celebrations.
The San Diego Free Press is something different. Distinto, diferente y sabroso. The unique make up the editorial board provides insight into why that is so. Each of us–Annie Lane, Brent Beltrán, Doug Porter, Frank Gormlie, Patty Jones, Rich Kacmar and I bring vastly different life experiences and expectations to the Free Press. We work together as a team and have a high level of trust in each other.
The eds meet once a month at each other’s homes. Two issues are always on the agenda- who have you been talking to this past month (outreach) and what is coming up that we should collectively be thinking about. Doug and I have met with progressive voices in Escondido; Annie and Brent have talked to students at Hi- Tech High. We attend community and city council meetings, show up at 5:30 am for worker rallies and march with our neighbors because black lives matter.
Albert Camus ends “The Myth of Sisyphus” with the thought provoking lines The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. We take that to mean that we’re in this for the long haul and that it is important to find joy and pleasure along the way.
We do find that joy and pleasure, filling our bellies as well as our hearts. We eat cheese and bolillos and egg rolls; drink wine, Free Press Nectar™ and beer at our monthly meetings; take new contributors out for coffee or lunch when we can schedule it; and we hold salons. Doug Porter gets to show off his culinary skills and I can justify a refrigerator full of cheese.
We throw out an idea to the nine or so salon guests. Chomsky is left in the dust as the evening takes on a life of its own. It doesn’t matter, because we have a good time–together. And that is very much the point.
San Diego Free Press‘s history, however, began before the June 4, 2012 launch. It is impossible to talk about SDFP without mentioning that history. Doug, Annie, Patty, Rich, Andy Cohen and I were part of the OB Rag, as were contributors Jim Miller, Ernie McCray and John Lawrence. Around five years ago a number of us saw the potential to broaden our reach in the region via a new media presence. It took a few years to put it all together.
While Frank Gormlie has continued to guide the OB Rag through an astounding seven years on line as its sole editor and SDFP has adopted a collective editorial model, we function as sister media platforms promoting grassroots news and progressive views.
This is a collective effort comprised of people who write poetry, make videos, draw political cartoons and write about the deeply personal as well as pressing social and political issues. This is who and what the San Diego Free Press is. Each one of you who has submitted something for publication, left a comment on a post, sent a donation, or entrusted us with information on background has shaped the contours of what citizen journalism can be here in San Diego. We hold such possibilities!
Together we are writing the people’s history and we are making it too. Thank you all! Save the date–Saturday July 25, for our Great Big Birthday Blowout. We hope to see you all there.
Author note: This post was updated above with the following language to correct a glaring omission:
San Diego Free Press‘s history, however, began before the June 4, 2012 launch. It is impossible to talk about SDFP without mentioning that history. Doug, Annie, Patty, Rich, Andy Cohen and I were part of the OB Rag, as were contributors Jim Miller, Ernie McCray and John Lawrence. Around five years ago a number of us saw the potential to broaden our reach in the region via a new media presence. It took a few years to put it all together.
While Frank Gormlie has continued to guide the OB Rag through an astounding seven years on line as its sole editor and SDFP has adopted a collective editorial model, we function as sister media platforms promoting grassroots news and progressive views.
My deepest apologies for that omission. Anna
Anna Daniels
Latest posts by Anna Daniels (see all)
- Bob Dorn: Rest in Power! - December 3, 2018
- The Urgency of Transgender Safety, Legal Protections - November 27, 2018
- Chaos and Cruelty at the Border - November 26, 2018
Wonderful look into the operation of SDFP.
But what, pray tell, is “Free Press Nectar”??
michael-leonard, first, thanks for being a long time reader and a contributor too. Free Press Nectar is a combo of cava, a Spanish sparkling wine, and Italian blood orange soda. It enables the imbiber to maintain the buzz without winding up plotzed.
My heart is full. Much love to all of you!
We rock. Others just roll.
Happy birthday to my fellow Freeps.
We provide a different perspective on reality than the main stream media provides. Their motto is “if it bleeds, it leads” with assorted variations to include natural disasters, riots and sex crimes. They don’t try to impart an understanding of what precipitates these phenomena. We do. They need to sell papers. We don’t. It’s a totally different mindset. They are selling spectacles. We are exposing their hypocrisy. In the tradition of Lincoln Steffens, we are muckrakers.
Well deserved congratulations to the San Diego Free Press. The journalistic dedication and thoughtful content and editorial perspectives are invaluable in our changing world, and are helping define a new era of civic responsibility and awareness in San Diego. Thank yous all.