Sunday Edition: What a week! June 18 through 23.
Sunday Edition: What a week! June 18 through 23.
By Tim Carl
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. – As we approach the end of the seventh week of Napa Valley Features, I’d like to highlight a few exciting aspects of our platform.
No ads
Have you noticed something particularly peaceful about reading stories on Napa Valley Features? That’s because we often have engaging photos and also because we are subscriber-funded, which means there are no distracting ads on any of our pages. Why don't we take ads? Because our platform is not intended to sell you anything but instead is meant to provide you with information that engages, connects and contributes to our community.
Listen to stories
Did you know that you can listen to our stories? Download the Substack app on your phone, and when a story shows up in your email, just click on the title and it will take you to the app. Once there, click on the headphone icon in the upper right-hand corner. My busy wife, Lynn, is a fan of this function because it allows her to listen to stories while she’s driving.
Nearly 1,000 subscribers
By word of mouth and your sharing of our stories, we are now very close to having 1,000 subscribers. (I am writing this on Saturday, so maybe we’ve already crossed that important milestone.) Thank you all for your support. For those readers still kicking the tires with our free service, we ask that you consider taking out a subscription. For just a few pennies a day, you can help ensure that Napa Valley Features remains viable. If becoming a paid subscriber is out of reach for you at the moment, please consider sharing our content with others who might value becoming members of our growing community.
How do our contributors get paid?
Because our operational costs are low, the majority of your support goes directly to contributors who are paid based on the content they provide to Napa Valley Features. When a contributor’s story runs, they get a point. At the end of the month, the distributed funds are allocated to the team based on the total number of points each person achieved. The goal is to be completely fair and transparent and to pay people commensurate with the support provided by our community.
On a mission
As a mission-based organization, our goal is not to maximize profit for some distant and often disinterested collection of non-local owners or investors. Instead, the entire structure of Napa Valley Features is focused on providing our subscribers the highest-quality local content that we can produce, while our “shareholders” are actually our contributors and, in a very real sense, also the entire community we serve. We will have “customers,” too, which include other publishers who are interested in purchasing our content. In fact, we are in discussions with a few such organizations to figure out how we might share our content with them in the future.
The end goal?
The entire plan surrounding Napa Valley Features is to become a reliable source for local Napa Valley news and information. We are not attempting to replace newspapers or directly compete with other local content providers. In fact, we see exciting operations like the newly launched Highway 29 Publishing Co., Wine Down Media and other efforts that seek to advance local content as valuable synergistic partners. And who knows, perhaps we will create a model to share with other communities that seek to save, reinvigorate or in some cases resurrect their local news source.
The success of Napa Valley Features is dependent on the support of our subscribers. And we are grateful for each of you. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
Last week
Last week we heard from Dave Stoneberg as he gave us an in-depth look at how the Up-valley Boys & Girls Club has been quietly supporting thousands of local families. We learned about some strikingly beautiful but potentially poisonous local plants and, of course, we heard from Paul Franson with his popular “Paul's Picks” that arrives every Friday morning for the weekend. Eduardo Dingler provided his first in a series about the similarities and differences between sake and wine, while Sasha Paulsen gave us a delicious tip about a hip new empanada-focused eatery in Napa. We learned about local birds from Kathleen Scavone and about Charles “Buster” Davis’ proposed new plans to expand his barbecue eatery from a 50-seat venue to more than 250 seats in an attempt to become a regional hub for jazz and blues. And sadly we also learned that the Napa Register continues to cut its services, reducing publication from seven days a week to three and eliminating home delivery as it opts for delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.
This coming week
This coming week looks to be another busy one at Napa Valley Features. We will look back at Jameson Humane’s wildly popular WineaPAWlooza event that was held yesterday. The event supports the organization's animal rescue, community spay and neuter programs, and efforts to educate and support the community regarding animal-welfare issues (Napa Valley Features is a sponsor of the event.) We will also hear from Bonnie Graves as she discusses a recent Napa Valley-focused event held in Los Angeles, which provides a fascinating window into how SoCal views the Napa Valley through the lens of wine. Diane De Filipi will give us her view on Savor After Hours, a new summer special offered on weekends and some Thursdays at the JaM Cellars Ballroom in downtown Napa, and be sure to watch for the second in the series from Dingler on sake. From Paulsen we will learn about Cindy Pawlcyn’s Mustards Grill turning 40. We’ll also hear from master gardeners and a new contributor, Virginie Boone, whom many of you know from her days as an editor at Wine Enthusiast. I will be focused on exploring the impact of the changing local media landscape. And there will be more, too.
As Yoda from "Star Wars" said, "Do or do not. There is no try.”
Onward!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! My email box(es) are filled with so much world news that it makes my head spin and my heart hurt. I NEED this daily connection to my own community. I like the features of interesting people, like the BBQ and jazz guy in Calistoga. Now I want to meet him! I will take the bad news with the good news, but please keep giving us Napa Valley news.
Congratulations, Tim and all with Napa Valley Features, for your successfully reaching out to the Valley and further with excellent stories! Keep up the great work! Best, Toni Allegra