Embarcadero Media was a publishing company for four decades whose titles included the Palo Alto Weekly, The Almanac of Menlo Park, the Mountain View Voice, the Pleasanton Weekly, The Six Fifty, and Palo Alto Online.
The company was founded as The Embarcadero Publishing Company in 1979 by William Johnson and was renamed Embarcadero Media in 2009. [1]
Johnson served as president and CEO until 2022, when he announced that he would retire and be succeeded by Adam Dawes, while remaining chairman of the board of directors.[2]
In November 2023, the company announced the establishment of a non-profit entity that would continue publishing the community weeklies.
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Kate Wakerly and Carol Torgrimson established the Voice, a monthly independent newspaper in Mountain View, California, in the fall of 1992. They ran operations for a time from Wakerly's basement. In 1994, the newspaper became part of Embarcadero Media, which changed its schedule to a weekly paper. Wakerly remained publisher and stayed through 2002 when she stepped down because of a breast cancer diagnosis. Tom Gibboney took over the editorship, and Wakerly died of cancer in 2004.
The Voice won a 2014 state newspaper association award for first place in environmental reporting for Daniel Debolt's reporting on TCE, a toxic solvent that computer chip manufacturers discarded in Mountain View in the mid-20th century. These solvents leaked into an aquifer in the northeast part of the city. Justin Scheck also won earlier awards for his work on TCE plumes, and became managing editor in 2001. Candice Shih was named managing editor in 2003, and was succeeded by Don Frances. Gibboney retired from his position as editor and publisher in 2014, handing the reins to Andrea Gemmet. [4]
Transition to Non Profit
On November 15, 2023, Embarcadero issued a press release acknowledging that in recent years, Embarcadero Media had faced significant challenges, including declining advertising revenue due to the local business closures from the pandemic and changing shopping patterns away from local retailers, the press release stated.
“Across our three newspapers and special publications, we've seen our print ads revenue decline by more than 42% since the end of 2019. Revenue across our entire operation, including print, our seven news websites and three newsletters, has declined by 32%,” Chief Executive Officer Adam Dawes wrote.
[5][6]
“All over the country, news organizations are failing or on the verge of failure, primarily due to the steady decline in advertising revenue that has stemmed from the use of digital media,” Executive Chairman of Embarcadero Media Bill Johnson said.
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