In June 2019, Jeff vonKaenel spoke to PBS KVIE as his newspaper,
the Sacramento News & Review, celebrated 30 years in business. At
that time, he reiterated claims made over two decades prior in a
front-page editorial titled “Mainstream
Newspapers, R.I.P.” It’s the oldest article preserved
on SNR’s website. In it, vonKaenel predicts dailies like The
Sacramento Bee will disappear while his paper, a much smaller and
cheaper operation, will survive.
“When the environment changes, bears don’t do very well.
Mosquitoes, or other things, do just fine,” vonKaenel said on
Studio Sacramento.
As print media declined, he believed SNR would be “the last
person standing.” About nine months later, something happened
that no one could have predicted: A global pandemic. SNR stopped
the presses, literally. Its print edition ceased as ad sales
dried up.
“It was just painful,” vonKaenel told me. “We had to lay
everybody off. We had to stop publishing, just instantly.” Years
later and the mosquito did survive, not without losing a few legs
and a wing. Most jobs were eliminated. The office was sold off.
The print archive was donated. Its vendor boxes remain empty, but
the SNR persists as a digital news outlet aided by a local
journalism collective.
‘We’re back’
Scott Thomas Anderson soldiers on as SNR’s lone full-time
journalist. He got his start interning at the paper, and years
later, in 2016, was hired on as a crime reporter. Before COVID,
there was a team of 10 journalists and graphic designers. Now
it’s just him. Anderson was named editor by the end of 2021 (he’s
also a contributor for Comstock’s magazine). Another
writer in a different division sometimes offers assistance. For
the most part, SNR’s articles are written by freelancers working
for Solving Sacramento.
The collective launched in early 2022 with SNR as a founding
collaborator. Its goal is to help sustain the region’s local news
ecosystem. The seven current members include CapRadio, Sacramento
Business Journal, The Sacramento Observer and
Hmong Daily News.
Each can submit their own stories for the others to republish and
can also re-use any of the articles produced by the freelancers
Solving Sacramento contracts. It’s a means to increase the amount
of local content the partners have at their disposal.
Scott Thomas Anderson in a photo taken for his true crime
documentary podcast series “Trace of the Devastation.” (Courtesy
of Scott Thomas Anderson)
In 1989, SNR was producing 1,000 stories a
year, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time. vonKaenel said his
paper is publishing “nowhere near that” number today. By sharing
stories from Solving Sacramento, Anderson said SNR is now posting
as many stories online as it did just before the pandemic.
“We’re back to being in a pretty good place, because that Solving
Sacramento experiment has panned out better than I ever imagined
it would,” Anderson says. Of the
top 10 most-read
stories posted last year to SNR’s website, four came
from Solving Sacramento and another four came from SNR’s pool of
freelancers. Anderson authored the other two on the list.
The output level has returned, while the focus has shifted. The
grants given to Solving Sacramento typically fund reporting on a
specific topic, like the housing crisis or the creative economy.
This means there’ll be times when SNR publishes a lot of content
on that subject matter. Anderson said the tone of the writing
from the collective’s freelancers is more akin to a traditional
daily newspaper-of-record than an experimental alternative weekly
like SNR. So it feels different, but it’s still news.
“A lot of grant funders out there are not looking to fund the
next Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, they’re looking to fund
really specific journalism that’s helpful and meaningful to
everyday people’s lives,” Anderson says. “That’s how it is, and
we’re lucky they’re out there, you know? So right now, SNR is
much more of a mainstream news publication since the pandemic.”
Anderson is fine with the change because SNR still has a separate
freelancer budget it can use to fund the kinds of reporting
others won’t, like long-form pieces up to 4,000 words, literary
journalism and creative nonfiction. It’s much less than what
Solving Sacramento can muster, but it makes a difference. “We
still have the freedom to do really creative pieces.”
‘A two-newspaper city’
SNR made it through the pandemic. However, vonKaenel said he
isn’t concerned with its long-term survival. What’s important to
him is producing reliable information that helps the community.
“Whether we do that with the News & Review or with Solving
Sacramento, I don’t really care. What I do care about is making
it happen.”
SNR still has a small office in Sacramento. VonKaenel doesn’t
visit it much. These days, he spends most of his time on N&R
Publications, his communications firm that primarily works with
government agencies across the country, like adult schools and
community colleges. The business is “using journalists to help
tell their story, which has been really impactful, and we’re
really proud of the work that we’re doing there,” vonKaenel says.
Seventy-four-year-old vonKaenel and his wife, Deborah Redmond,
are still trying to figure out what to do with SNR. Right now,
its future is undecided. What is certain for vonKaenel is that
SNR will not resume its print edition anytime soon, if ever. He
also doesn’t think SNR can become a self-sustaining business
again.
“I don’t see a path there right now,” vonKaenel says. “I wouldn’t
mind if I could run a four-minute mile, either. But how do we get
there? I’m not seeing it.”
VonKaenel would like to pass on his news outlets. The owner of
Coachella Valley Independent reached out about the Reno News &
Review, and “we basically gave him the paper,” vonKaenel said. He
hasn’t seen much interest in SNR or Chico News & Review. “There’s
been not a lot of people knocking at the door.” It’s possible SNR
could cease or merge with Solving Sacramento in some capacity.
Historically, Sacramento was served by two large dailies, the
Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento Union. The Union ceased in
1994. Anderson said the SNR in some ways succeeded it as the
city’s second general interest newspaper. He’d like it to
continue fulfilling that role.
“It’s important for Sacramento, the capital of the fourth largest
economy in the world, for it to be a two-newspaper city,”
Anderson says, “even if one of those newspapers is an army of
freelancers.”
Corrections August 27, 2025:
-
A previous version of this article listed the number of
Solving Sacramento members as eight. The current number of
members is seven. -
A previous version of this article described Solving
Sacramento as a nonprofit. It is not a nonprofit, but has a
nonprofit fiscal sponsor. -
This version has been updated to include the name of
Deborah Redmond, Jeff vonKaenel’s wife and
co-founder.
–
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