Pacific Sun (newspaper)

The Pacific Sun is a free distribution weekly newspaper published in Marin County, just north of San Francisco in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is the longest running alternative weekly in the nation and is published on Wednesdays.[2][3][4][5]

Pacific Sun
TypeAlternative weekly
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Metro Newspapers Dan Pulcrano
PublisherRosemary Olson
Founded1963
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters1020 B St
San Rafael, California 94901
United States
Circulation20,000[1]
Websitewww.pacificsun.com

History

The Pacific Sun was founded in April 1963 in California by Merrill and Joann Grohman in the back of a Stinson Beach grocery store. In 1966, the Pacific Sun moved its offices to San Rafael.[3] Steve McNamara, the former Sunday editor of the San Francisco Examiner, bought it from the Grohmans that year.[6]

Ten months after McNamara took over as editor, the San Francisco Press Club awarded its first prize for the best news story in a northern California non-daily paper for the Sun's story “The Night Nicasio Fired the Principal”, about a school board’s firing of a principal for admitting to marijuana use. In 1984, The Sun won the award for General Excellence from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.[3]

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer worked as a reporter for the Pacific Sun for two years in the 1970s, winning a Press Club award for a 1973 story on a state supreme court controversy.[3]

Embarcadero Media, publisher of community weeklies in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Pleasanton, purchased The Sun from McNamara in 2004.

Sam Chapman, a former Chief of Staff to Senator Boxer, served as the paper's publisher until 2010. Jason Walsh served as the editor and Dani Burlison replaced Samantha Campos as staff writer in 2010, after Campos replaced Jacob Shafer in 2008.

In October 2012, former Embarcadero principal Bob Heinen purchased the paper and took over as publisher.[7]

In May 2015, Metro Newspapers acquired the Pacific Sun, increasing its portfolio to four Bay Area alternative weeklies.[8] Metro restored circulation cuts that had occurred under the previous ownership and commissioned well-known typographer Jim Parkinson to redraw the Sun's nameplate. Owner Dan Pulcrano promised “investment and creative vision... to produce a free weekly that’s fresh, original and true to its history.”[9]

In December 2019, the Sun commemorated its 55th year of publication with longtime Mill Valley resident Sammy Hagar on its cover.

The Serial

Cyra McFadden’s 1977 best seller, The Serial — a Year in the Life of Marin County. began as a series of 52 installments in the Sun. In 1980, Paramount Pictures made a movie titled Serial based on the book. [10]

gollark: ++remind 22🐝 hi
gollark: That is the wrong syntax.
gollark: PRs welcome!
gollark: It also accepts bee lifespans and semesters.
gollark: It can do a bit of natural language parsing, but it won't do "never".

References
  1. "Pacific Sun". Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  2. "About Us". pacificsun.com. Pacific Sun. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  3. Chuck Oldenburg, ed. (May 29, 2011). "Walk Into History Guide" (PDF). mvhistory.org. Mill Valley Historical Society. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  4. Stewart McBride (May 22, 1980). "Underground Papers; come up on top". csmonitor.com. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  5. "About Us". pacificsun.com. Pacific Sun. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  6. Stewart McBride (May 22, 1980). "Underground Papers come up on top". csmonitor.com. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  7. Menlo Park man buys Pacific Sun weekly newspaper
  8. Zaragoza, Jason (2015-05-06). "Metro Newspapers Acquires Pacific Sun". AltWeeklies.com. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  9. Pulcrano, Dan (2015-05-29). "The Sun's new rise". Archived from the original on 2015-05-30. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  10. Oldenburg, Chuck (2015-05-06). "Six Firsts". Mill Valley Historical Society. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
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