Santa Cruz Weekly
Encyclopedia
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
began publishing under its current name on May 6, 2009. Formerly known as Metro Santa Cruz
Metro Santa Cruz
Metro Santa Cruz, a free-circulation weekly newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California from 1994 to 2009, was renamed the Santa Cruz Weekly on May 6, 2009...
, the alternative weekly
Alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
covers news, people, culture and entertainment in Santa Cruz County
Santa Cruz County, California
Santa Cruz County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, on the California Central Coast. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay. . As of the 2010 U.S. Census, its population was 262,382. The county seat is Santa Cruz...
, a coastal area that includes Capitola
Capitola, California
Capitola is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, on the coast of Monterey Bay. The population was 9,918 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, Aptos
Aptos, California
Aptos is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 6,220 at the 2010 census.Aptos is an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz county, consisting of several small communities...
, Boulder Creek
Boulder Creek, California
Boulder Creek is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 4,923 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Boulder Creek is located at ....
, Scotts Valley
Scotts Valley, California
Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles south of downtown San Jose and six miles north of Monterey Bay, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,580...
and Watsonville
Watsonville, California
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 51,199 according to the 2010 census.Located on the central coast of California, the economy centers predominantly around the farming industry. It is known for growing strawberries, apples, lettuce and a host...
.
Locally based in Santa Cruz, the alternative weekly
Alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
is owned by Metro Newspapers
Metro Newspapers
Metro Newspapers is an American newspaper company based in San Jose, California. It currently publishes three free alternative weekly newspapers in Northern California: Metro Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz Weekly and the North Bay Bohemian...
, a company started by former Santa Cruz publisher Dan Pulcrano
Dan Pulcrano
Dan Pulcrano is a journalist, newspaper owner and Web executive in San Jose, California. He is CEO and executive editor of Metro Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley’s alternative newsweekly, as well as its sister publications, Santa Cruz Weekly and the North Bay Bohemian...
. The company also publishes Metro
Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper
Metro is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as Metro Silicon Valley, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print form, Metro can be downloaded, in PDF format, for free from the publisher's website...
in the adjacent Santa Clara Valley
Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...
, a.k.a. Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
and the North Bay Bohemian
North Bay Bohemian
The North Bay Bohemian is a free weekly newspaper published in the North Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States...
in the Sonoma/Napa/Marin
North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
The North Bay is a subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States. The largest city is Santa Rosa. It is by far the least populous and least urbanized part of the Bay Area...
area.
Founded as Metro Santa Cruz
Metro Santa CruzMetro Santa Cruz
Metro Santa Cruz, a free-circulation weekly newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California from 1994 to 2009, was renamed the Santa Cruz Weekly on May 6, 2009...
began publishing in 1994 and continued under that name until it became Santa Cruz Weekly in 2009. The founding editors' stated objective was to continue a local tradition of independent journalism that had included such publications as Free Spaghetti Dinner, Sundaze, Santa Cruz Independent, an unrelated publication in the 1980s called Santa Cruz Weekly, Santa Cruz Express and Santa Cruz Sun.
Relaunched under new name
The name change remained a secret until the publication hit the streets on May 6, 2009. The design was developed in-house by a team led by Metro Newspapers design director Kara Brown. The first issue featured a black and white illustration by longtime Santa Cruz illustrator Futzie Nutzle and a cover story on the Santa Cruz Film Festival. The editors stated that they selected the name because they were tired of being confused with the local public transit transit systemSanta Cruz Metropolitan Transit District
The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District , or simply the Santa Cruz Metro, provides bus service throughout Santa Cruz County, California....
of the same name, as well as to throw down a stake for newspapers following the shutdowns of several daily newspapers in early 2009, including the Rocky Mountain News
Rocky Mountain News
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...
and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
. “At a transformative moment in the publishing industry, we've adopted a decidedly newspaper-y name to express our optimism about weekly print,” they wrote and suggested that business was rising rather than declining like the rest of the industry. “From a business standpoint, the last two years have been our best ones, which is counterintuitive,” the signed editorial stated.
Web and social media strategy
The publication is affiliated with the SantaCruz.com community web portal, operated by a sister company, BoulevardsBoulevards
Boulevards is a network of city guides on the Internet established in 1994 by Boulevards New Media Inc., an early digital media pioneer. It preceded other city guide networks such as Citysearch and Microsoft's now-defunct Sidewalk.com product, which launched under a similarly metaphorical brand and...
New Media. In a decidedly 2009 twist, its Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
pages went live in advance of the print edition, a launch strategy that established social media presence before papers hit the street. "Our goal is to deliver Santa Cruz County's best suite of local information and marketing services to Santa Cruz residents, visitors and businesses," the editors wrote.
Awards
Alt-Weekly Awards awarded by the Association of Alternative NewsweekliesFeature Writing, 2nd Place (Life and Death on The Pajaro River Levee, Jessica Lussenhop), 2010
Multimedia, 2nd Place (The Aztecas of South Santa Cruz County, Jessica Lussenhop), 2010
Food Writing, 1st Place (The Jester's Quest, Christina Waters), 2009
Arts Feature, 3rd Place (Unlock & Roll, Curtis Cartier), 2009
Editorial Layout, 2nd Place (Kara Brown and Tabi Zarrinnaal), 2007
Food Writing,1st Place (Kraut in the Act by Steve Billings), 2005
Music Criticism, 3rd Place (Steve Palopoli), 2005
Music Criticism, 2nd Place (David Espinoza), 2001
Photography, 1st Place (Breadth of Life by George Sakkestad), 2000
Arts Criticism, 2nd Place (J. Douglas Allen-Taylor), 1999
Arts Criticism, 1st Place (Power Flick People by Traci Hukill), 1998
Film Criticism, 1st Place (The Prince of Plots by Richard von Busack), 1998
Arts Feature, 2nd Place (Mint Condition by Christina Waters), 1997; Photography, 1st Place (Robert Scheer), 1997
Food Writing, 1st Place: (Waiting For Merlot by Christina Waters), 1996
External links
- Metropdf.com, Santa Cruz Weekly: PDF edition
- Santacruz.com
- Santacruzweekly.com
- Boulevards.com
- Metronews.com, Metro Newspapers
- Santacrusfb.com Santa Crus facebook
- Twitter.com