We — the people who’ve overseen this incredible platform called the San Diego Free Press — have decided it’s time to move on. Dec. 14, 2018, will be our last day of posting.
We would like to say thank you to everyone who subscribed to, commented on, and shared our articles over the years — and to those who showed your support more quietly simply by visiting our site. We saw your presence in the stats, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
In fact, we’re going out on a high note. We’ve just had our best two months ever in terms of readership. We have funds in the bank, and — most importantly — all of us on the Editorial Board remain good friends.
Initially, we’d planned on taking a break after the 2016 election, never imagining the Electoral College would elect a racist and a con man to the highest office in the land. Instead, we kicked things into higher gear, knowing we needed to be a leading voice of the local resistance. We’ve seen changes in the political and media landscape since then and after two years at full speed, we feel it’s time to take that much needed rest.
For now, we’ll just say we’re suspending operations. We are open to ideas on how to continue the San Diego Free Press — an SDFP 2.0 of sorts — though we are not sure what that looks like just now.
We did not come to this decision lightly. Those of us who volunteered innumerable hours to making San Diego Free Press happen seven days a week since June 4, 2012, have loved the time we spent on this rare and wonderful enterprise, and the hundreds of connections we’ve made with fellow resisters near and far. We have been changed for the better because of this experience. We will carry these positive memories with us as we take up new challenges moving forward, and we hope you will, too.
Please do not stop sending submissions for publication! We will continue to welcome all article types — written, video, poetry, photography — through Wednesday, Dec. 12.
Our body of work — nearly 9,000 articles — will remain accessible online. This site is a rich resource of activist history collected over the past six and a half years, and we’d like to find a permanent home for it. We currently have enough to get us through December 2019.
We hope you will continue to contribute to the site. Additional funds will enable us to maintain the site for a longer period and participate in the annual Society for Professional Journalists San Diego awards in 2019 — at which our talented and thought-provoking contributors and editors have won awards each year.
Our mothership, a.k.a. the OB Rag, will continue to publish. Many of the SDFP’s regular contributors will continue to be seen there. We are fiercely proud of the work we did here to speak truth to power. Every day brought new learning experiences and insights. We are grateful to all of you.
Sincerely,
The San Diego Free Press Editorial Board: Anna Daniels, Rich Kačmar, Doug Porter, Annie Lane, Brent Beltrán, Frank Gormlie, and Patty Jones
Staff
Latest posts by Staff (see all)
- Thank You From the San Diego Free Press - December 14, 2018
- San Diego Free Press to Suspend Publication After Dec. 14 - November 20, 2018
- November 2018 Cheat Sheet & Progressive Voter Kit San Diego Free Press - November 1, 2018
I can not tell you how sad this makes me. I am also appreciative not because you published my articles but for the opportunity to focus on the Latino/a community and the friendships we have formed. I don’t see us as connections but as friendships that will last a life time. You took stories that no one else would touch on such a regular bases and made them perfectly “normal,” There are not enough words to say thank you. Not even gracias is enough. Un abrazo para todos.
Your contributions have been enormous, and will be missed. Every morning for me began with SDFP, and you helped us figure out complex elections. Thank you so much.
Que vivan Los Freeps!
I hope you will decide at least to publish irregularly. We need your guidance at election time.
I can’t imagine how you have done all that you’ve done…but it is very sad to see you go. I deeply hope that somehow this effort will be born again! Thank you so much for your years of service. Peter Brown
This announcement transported me to an earlier time.
It exactly mirrored how I felt after finding a piece of coal in my Christmas stocking. 😟
yeah, right, or left, either way, up or down, you rule, we embrace you, power to you…
Wow, SDFP has been a reliable news and more source for me.
Thank you all so much, Love and Hugs all around.
Take a long much deserved rest.
Good luck and
Mahalo
I’m sure the powers will be jumping in their old age diapers at your absence.
happy to announce the birth of a new age survivor, my grand daughter, Adele, born in Paris, France, Oct 12, 2018,… and so many more coming and a-coming, can’t stop ’em… the world is theirs…we are but gravel on the road, for the day after tomorrow…
This announcement took my breath away and tears fell. Rest, recuperate, realign and I hope there is a resurgence of SDFP in ways no one can imagine, not even you! With head bowed, I thank you for everything you have done.
Thank you for all the work you put in to make the San Diego Free Press essential reading and viewing. You have shed light in dark corners. You have illuminated lives otherwise known to too few. You made a difference!
Please take care of yourselves. Relax. Rejuvenate. Smell the flowers. Soak in the sunshine. On to your next adventures. Best wishes.
Very well said, Lowell. I agree with every word, but would add my fervent hope that after a good dose of flowers and sunshine you Freepers will come on back. We will miss you!
Oh my! So very sad to read this. San Diego Free Press has been so helpful to me on so many issues. I dread going in to 2020 without San Diego Free Press. :-(
Carrie Cecilia Peery,
ccpeery@cox.net
December 6, 2018
I am a devoted reader and am sorry to know that I will not have the opportunity to continue to enjoy this award-winning paper. I looked forward to reading the truth from articles written by regular folk as well as the accomplished journalist. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for producing this wonderful newspaper. I will miss it.
I’m so sorry to read this, but I also know how hard all of you have worked and that there is always a time to move on to other things. The San Diego Free Press has been such a great resource for all of us. You will be missed!
Having just discovered you earlier this year, I am very saddened by this news, but I also understand. Rest, recuperate and take whatever time necessary to re-energize, but please please please do not go away forever. I would even contribute time and/or financially (once I get a new job) to help keep hope and SDFP and your excellent writing/articles alive. We need progressive voices more than ever right now, always will, and SDFP is one of those bright and necessary lights the world needs. Until your future is better known, I wish you all nothing but the very best in the meantime. Thank you for all your heartfelt dedication and work to bring truth, facts and light to the masses!!
I have enjoyed visiting your site almost every workday for the past 5 years and thank you all for providing a sane, accurate and hopeful outlook in a world awash with stupidity and despair.
Wishing you all the best!
No!
You are a voice in the wilderness and a major source of reason. I do hope you will reconsider at some point.
So very sorry to hear this, thank you for all you’ve done.
San Diego will be the poor for losing such an amazing resource. If there is any way that my space, lace on race, can be in any way helpful or if I can be of assistance in any way let me know.
My feelings echo most of the rest of the comments here: Thank you all for all of your hard work. I hope you will be back soon and you will be missed. It’s a sad day.
You will be wholeheartedly missed. Many blessings.
I long have wondered how you did it every day. You held me in awe of your productivity, but even more by your integrity, your ability to provoke, to inspire action. This is crushing news that a selfish part of me refuses to accept, even knowing you are in need of and entitled to R&R. You guys are the best thing that could happen to San Diego journalism, and I am forever grateful, you irreplaceable you.
You guys rocked! Thank you for sharing your passion and talent with us all — San Diego is a better place to be because of you.
Thanks to you all for all of it!
I’m sad to hear this; you’ve done a great job and I hope you’ll have a revival. If some of your reporters are looking for a place to continue to write about San Diego politics and issues, please email me at editor@eastcountymagazine.org or call 619 698 7617. We cover countywide issues that matter. We also have a radio show on KNSJ, the Network for Social Justice, and need help with that. We just started a new nonprofit to support our media endeavors, but our biggest shortage is talented journalists (we’ve lost a couple of long-time contributors who moved on) as well as “citizen journalists” who can help us cover issues and events across our region. We do have a modest budget and a need for team members to help us grow to the next level.
How terrific, Miriam, to extend the invitation to these professionals. I think we should see a book or two come from Free Press People, too.
I am so saddened by this news. I have used SDFP as my go to source for events for two years now. Your work is greatly appreciated and will miss your publication enormously!
Very sorry to hear this. Thank you all for your years of hard work and best of luck in future endeavors~
I am so sorry to see the closing, but who knows? I’ve followed this paper since it started, and would love it to come back or have someone take it on.
Thanks for the past.
😢
Enormously sad to read this. Thank you for the enlightening writing and music videos that
have kept me company on the journey. You will be missed and I echo everyone else’s wishes
that you will return. What a talented bunch of journalists you are! Peace and love to SDFP.
First, lest I forget – here’s wishing a very Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving, to all my SDFP friends! :-)
Admittedly I’m still in something of a state of shock, after reading your big announcement. May I submit, that SDFP and all of you are something we’re all very thankful for!
I’ve made new friends, and learned an awful lot, during my time here.
Be assured, I’ve already bookmarked OB Rag’s home page! Will Freeps & Friends, one of my favorite features, be continued there? (Hope so…)
And, fear not, I’ll still be around! (You should be so lucky, *45 – mwa-hah-hah-hah!!!) ;-)
Thank You!!
From a grateful fan, thoughtfulbear :-)
oh no! where can we get enlightened news now? I hope you have plans to reinvent yourselves and come back roaring.
These are encouraging words, thank all for your service.
“For now, we’ll just say we’re suspending operations. We are open to ideas on how to continue the San Diego Free Press — an SDFP 2.0 of sorts — though we are not sure what that looks like just now.”
Take that respite from deadlines, while continuing in the spirit of the ‘free press’ that each have well represented. Tho, I have been a fan from the central coast and SF Bay Area, feel the impending loss of this choice grass roots reporting. With gratitude, join the many in already missing this exemplary community ensemble and read. Thank you.
I am so grateful you have been here for us, your readers. After May 24, 2016, I no longer had Bud Sonka, my husband of many years, to help me sort things out in what promised to be a chaotic time in our nation. “Chaotic” is putting it mildly. Your staff has helped me get through the time since his death when I’ve desperately needed to hear the clear voices of sound thinkers.
I understand that you all need a break from deadlines, but I don’t believe you will be able to help yourselves. You will speak up in various venues when situations cry for your voices. I’ll be listening.
You have done great work, thank you!
Who will analyze the candidates for me as well as you do? And where can I go for like-minded views on the many issues of our times? I will miss you greatly and be less-well-informed which should be a crime these days.
This is a huge loss for San Diego. Thank you for all your hard work these last 6.5 years. You made a huge difference.