The Official End Of The Alameda Sun As Online Edition Ceases Publication
Alameda took a step in the direction of becoming a “news desert” with the final, second stage shutdown of the long-standing local newspaper, The Alameda Sun, in digital form scheduled to go offline on Dec. 15th.
In fact, the webpage still showed up in an archival state on Dec. 16th, with its last new post fittingly focused on an extension of its “liquidation sale” of office remnants through Dec. 3,
The last print edition of the 23 year long, 1,155 issue, real newsprint newspaper hit the stands and driveways on November 30th.
The Sun zeroed in on local City Hall and other hometown politics, reported on community ups and downs, shined light on local public benefit and recreational events, and hosted a vibrant, if not sometimes unrestrained, Letters To The Editor and local Op Ed spot where folks could vent, grumble, advocate, praise or inspire, even if their missives were sometimes a bit disheveled or rambling.
The bar was never very high, which opened the door for lots of regular Joes to thrill at seeing their works in print, in a form of permanency and with that special visual impact that gets lost online.
A signature, grin producing, self promotion feature was the publication’s “The Sun Shines Everywhere,” for which folks from Alameda would take a copy of The Sun and do a kind of ‘selfie,’ showcasing a copy of the paper, in places far and wide around the country and globe.
For a brief time those pages would shine, until –as with all newsprint– they ended up in a keepsake drawer, the recycle or lining the bottom of the birdcage, that is.
The Sun helped to keep Alameda City Government on display and accountable and ritually posted a calendar-like weekly, incident focused update on crime and fire department emergency matters through old- school pieces dubbed “Police Blotter” and “Fire Wire.”
And then, there was the most important content, though coverage was spotty: local youth sports.
The Sun counted on Alameda Community support and content contributions to supplement its small staff of writers, — and eventually, paid subscriptions –to help defray the crushing costs of doing business, but a decline in ad revenues –a big chunk of which had been borne by The City Of Alameda which stopped advertising its events during Covid and after—became the doomsday decline.
Then there was the more menacing, widespread threat to news journalism’s viability: a distracted or largely indifferent generation of online info consumers who want to ride for free, if they are interested in old school news at all.
Labors of love do not pay the bills, something that The Sun’s publisher and spinal cord, Eric Kos, had to finally admit the hard way after riding the ups and downs over two decades in the business of news.
Kos remarked in a final retrospective that, “Honestly, it was like a son to me. My son turned out to be very irresponsible with money,” even as Kos and family were frugal and poured substantial amounts of personal funds to feed their offspring.
The end of the run for The Sun leaves the local town of about 79,000 folks with only one remaining print publication, The Alameda Journal, which often combines non- Alameda centered content from The East Bay Times and other outlets and which has frozen its freelance budget through mid 2024, diminishing the pool of hometown writers.
Alameda has only two other news journalism entities, both digital, The Alameda Post and Alameda Neighborhoods News (alamedanews.org), a fledgling start up seeking to build a subscriber base needed for its survival.
Besides these three traditional news sources, the bulk of community information comes from Press Releases, as those from The City of Alameda, The School District, Police and other local sources. Press Releases typically serve up select, basic facts, often with a touch or two of spin, and are prone to lean into a “rosy picture” bias that skirts detail that might show controversy or dig beneath the surface level.
Then there are the various, ‘go to’ online sites as Alameda Peeps, Alameda Nextdoor, Alameda Merry Go Round and a variety of bloggers, among other sources that may offer hearsay, unbridled, opinion, first hand observations, spin and other, un-vetted information
They may or may not be reliable, but they are fast and free, unlike the costly dinosaur Kos which could no longer feed and had to let perish.
We all love dinosaurs, but they now exist only as anachronistic remnants, frozen in time, in the confines of museums.
For The Sun, its print remains will be housed, perhaps only to gather dust, according to Kos, in an archive held by The Alameda Free Library.
In a few, final, heartfelt and slightly barbed parting words, Eric Kos, the torch that lit The Sun said, “Bye Alameda; it’s been fun. If you liked it, you shoulda’ put a ring on it.”