Placer Sentinel calls it quits - for now
The Placer Sentinel published its final edition this week. Publisher Janice Forbes and CEO Bob Evans announced the closure in the Jan. 22 issue. “After looking at our end-of-the-year financials and the probability of the economy hopping back soon, we have reluctantly decided to cease publishing the Placer Sentinel for the time being,” Forbes, Evans and Editor Donna Lach said in the notice. … Publishing a small newspaper has been enjoyable in the past and we’re sure it will eventually be so again. We hope to be around when it is.” The late Tom Homer started the Auburn weekly in 1990, selling it to Forbes and Evans a few years later. Homer, who later became the editor of the Colfax Record, died in 2004. Forbes also publishes Sierra Heritage magazine. She founded the Sierra Business Council and chairs the Placer Community Foundation board of directors. Don Chaddock, editor of the Folsom and El Dorado Hills Telegraph newspapers, was the editor of the Sentinel from 2003 to September 2008. “I was not surprised,” Chaddock said about the paper’s closure. “The Sentinel had been struggling, along with many other newspapers, and that is what prompted me to leave. It’s sad, because I really poured my heart into that paper for a long time. I was very involved in the community for the newspaper, so it is sad day to see it go.” Auburn City Councilman Kevin Hanley’s column, “Common Sense,” appeared weekly in the paper. “I was given a chance the last eight years to write a column for the Sentinel and I wrote more than 450 columns for them,” he said Wednesday. “It was a nice way to get issues and ideas out and get feedback from people who read the column and agreed or disagreed with it. It was a fun process to look at local issues and people and write about them. I had a good time. That’s for sure.”
— Gloria Young
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I will so miss the Sentinel, on so many fronts it provided a resource not found elsewhere, and or providing a different perspective on local events. While several worked to get the message out for a long time It was the Sentinel that have the courage to expose the true core problems at ARD & pushed the snowball over the edge that has created the positive change that continues today, saving local taxpayers tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Joe, Gary & Kevin were always a must read, not to mention the regular guest editorials and submissions (G.A!)- no matter how wrong their opinions may have been from time to time - they still made me smile! & Donna was te best - local music owes her a lot. Here's hopin' somehow the Sentinel will return! Local media is so important & variety helps make it better - Support Local Media! (as well as Local Music, shops....) Thanks to all who helped keep it chugging along all these years - I wish you all the best!!
Sad, it was a good paper that would publish a lot of stuff the AJ wouldnt....there were some good writers there...
A loss for the community for sure
The Sentinel was never the same after Joe left.
Publisher Janice Forbes and CEO Bob Evans announced the closure in the Jan. 22 issue.
Yes Jon, they were so lucky to have such a witty & talented writer as Joe.
Local media must have the solid and continuous support of the community and ad revenue to survive. While Joe C was at the paper, for a brief window of time, I enjoyed my column where I focused on THE LOCALS. Revenue is so important so when hard-plowing sales manager Jodi G left, she took the momentum that brought in must-have sales revenue. Will miss the tell-it-like-it-is biting columnist Moffat.
maybe the Journal could pick up Gary Moffat and Kevin Hanly as
guest columnists?
This was a wonderful paper that truly reflected the small town feel and those of us lucky enough to call it "home". They did a terrific job keeping up with what was happening with Arts & Music, Community Calender, and Placer Blog. I will miss Kevin and Gary's Columns and their predecessors. Maybe the AJ will look at having as "guest columnists". Thank you Janice and Bob for a great paper. You will be deeply missed
I will definitely miss it.
I, for one, would be willing TO PAY for the newspaper--as I pay for other media--to help offset costs should another publisher wish to resume the community paper. Economics, content, community support are necessary ingredients for survival.