Palo Alto 'Weekly' Buys Marin County Alternative

By: E&P Staff


Embarcadero Publishing Co., publisher of the alternative Palo Alto Weekly is buying the Marin County alternative paper Pacific Sun.

No terms were disclosed on the sale, which is expected to close next month.

The Sun has a free distribution of 36,000 through newsracks and bulk drop locations.

Pacific Sun owner, Publisher and Editor Steve McNamara, who was the first president of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, noted that the sale coincides with his 70th birthday. "The decision to sell the Sun was easy and it was hard," he said in a statement. "It was easy because after nearly 50 years in the newspaper business I wanted to take a deep breath and try some other things. It was hard because I have cherished working with the Sun staff and the community we serve for nearly 40 years. But once the decision was made it seemed natural to pass the responsibility to my old friend Bill Johnson and his associates at the Palo Alto Weekly."

Johnson's Embarcadero owns the Palo Alto Weekly, which is published twice a week and mailed free to 45,000 households, plus three other free-distribution papers: the Almanac, serving Menlo Park, Woodside, Atherton and Portola Valley; the Mountain View Voice; and the Pleasanton Weekly.

Johnson said the Sun would continue to be run as an independent publication.

"When (McNamara) approached us about buying the Sun, we leaped at the opportunity," Johnson said. "Our publishing goals and values are as alike as any two companies can be, and the Marin community is a perfect complement to the markets we already serve."

The Sun employed Barbara Boxer as a reporter before she entered politics and became a U.S. Senator from California, and was the first home for Armisted Maupin's writing. His feature, "The Serial," became "Tales of the City" when Maupin moved to the San Francisco Chronicle.