American Canyon, a city in southern Napa County, California, may not have a downtown core, but the growing and increasingly diverse city was missing the glue that holds a community together: a local newspaper.
“Every time we talked to people in this vibrant and very much growing town of 22,000 people, [they said] we don’t have a newspaper and they’re pretty much ignored by the rest of the publications,” Sasha Paulsen, consulting editor of Napa Valley News Group, explains.
The news group, founded and chaired by Marc Hand, had already become a publishing hub for the Napa Valley, delivering news in the Yountville Sun, Calistoga Tribune, and Conéctate Napa County.
Hand, as co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, felt confident they could fill the gap in American Canyon.
“Especially in this economic climate that we’re in, I feel like it’s so important for people to be informed and to have access to news about their towns and what their city council’s doing,” Paulsen says.
They just needed a few things to make it happen: journalists, a launch strategy and a website.
Part of the solution came when they were granted two interns from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism to create a summer pop-up news outlet, American Canyon Current. If they could bring in enough subscribers, they could turn the brand new online news outlet into a more permanent reality.
Over the summer of 2025, the team met with Indiegraf each week to develop a newsletter product and website. Indiegraf audience experts helped build an initial landing page with key messaging to grow a list of subscribers with a paid acquisition strategy as the journalists provided on-the-ground community outreach.
Their goal? Reach 2,000 subscribers by August 31.
Empowering students to run with ‘boots on the ground‘
Paulsen said they selected Berkeley J-school students Xavey Bzdek and Fiona Ulrich “because both of them just seemed to have this instinctive interest in, like, wow, I would really like to help create a whole new publication,” Paulsen explains.
“I’m [an] old school journalist, and love working with young people. I find that that creates this perfect balance,” Paulsen adds. “They’re young, they’re tech savvy.
“But on the other hand, I feel like I have a little bit to offer them, just in terms of having been around and worked as a community journalist for so many years. “
The first step was supporting students in cranking out local stories for publication.
During weekly meetings, the students were tasked with talking to people out in the community, getting to know American Canyon and its residents better to refine the editorial strategy from there.
“It was sort of a combination of getting some preliminary content out, so just news stories, and then just chatting to people and almost going word of mouth to basically say, ‘Hey, we’re trying to launch this local news site. What are some of your thoughts?” Bzdek recalls.
“I think a lot of people were super excited to even hear a couple of kids walking around being like… ‘Hey, we want to start a full time newsletter and local news site for you guys,” Bzdek adds.
That grassroots strategy was reflected in the new digital product.
“They had put in a little photo of us at the bottom, so that locals could get a sense of who was doing this work,” Bzdek says. “We’re trying to show you that we’re a part of the community.”
Setting a clear strategy and goals
As the students hit the streets to spread the word, Paulsen worked with Indiegraf’s co-founder Caitlin Millar to build out the newsletter, a landing page for sign ups and a paid acquisition strategy to grow an initial list of subscribers through advertising on Meta.
With $6,000, they worked together to create a professional online presence that locals could get behind.
“All those things they created, along with the overall goals and strategies — it was creating a foundation for it,” says Paulsen.
While Bzdek came in with no working newsroom experience or background in the business of journalism, “a big draw for this internship for me was having it be a little bit more than me just writing stories and having a chance to either give my input or help work on some sort of audience strategy for the news group.”
The team knew that in order to make the Current sustainable, they were going to have to pitch audience revenue support quickly after growing a supporter base.
“We’re sort of trying to go with the NPR model of you can become a member and support us and help us to get news to everybody,” Paulsen explains. “But if you can’t afford it, the news is here for you too. Which is very idealistic — but I think kind of essential.”
‘Spread the word in every single direction’
Alongside lead ads, the students were handing out flyers with a QR code to let people know about the newsletter. Wherever possible, they also tabled events.
“That was honestly, like, one of the main ways, besides the digital strategy, that we were just getting the word out,” Bzdek says.
“I’d have someone say, ‘A friend sent me the newsletter,’ or, ‘Oh yeah, someone was talking about it the other day,’” he adds. “I think it helped us in the long run, being there in person and kind of showing them that.. we’re not just, like, behind a screen trying to talk to the community.”
Momentum grew when locals in the wider community promoted the new product. Notably, the mayor’s own newsletter.
“He shouted us out.” Bzdek says. “Whether it was through the high school or through the mayor’s office, or through just like meeting people — that was the basis of our boots on the ground strategy, just trying to spread the word in every single direction.”
Understanding the diversity of this growing community, the students could better gauge how best to serve their audience with valuable stories.
“One of my favorite stories was one I got to do about this teacher at the high school who works with students in an English as a Second Language Program,” Bzdek explains. “And so that was just a fun story that kind of highlighted the real diversity in the schools, which also kind of reflects the community.
What’s next?
“I was surprised that we reached our goal — delighted — and now we’ve exceeded it,” Paulsen explains. “And, you know, I think there’s potential to add a lot more subscribers as they learn about it.”
Both students have completed their internships but Bzdek has stayed on to produce the Monday newsletter. “Working on that newsletter has given me a lot of creative freedom to kind of experiment and see what people are enjoying” Bzdek says.
“I include some fun things, like a four letter Wordle and usually a trivia question every week.”
As they work toward a NewsMatch end-of-year revenue campaign, American Canyon Current now relies on support from California Local News Fellow Griffin Jones and Kerana Todorov who are producing local stories.
At a recent presentation to the local soroptimists group, the team heard nothing but positive feedback, Paulsen recalls. “It was just so nice to have people say, thank you for doing this. I love it.”
While they are thrilled with the launch overall, starting a news outlet from scratch is not without its challenges, Paulsen reminds us.
“You’re not building on something, you’re creating something because they’ve had no newspaper.”
“Now, can we sustain it in a way where we can actually continue this work and still pay our mortgages and put food on the table?’” Paulsen says
Paulsen regrets not having a plan for advertising revenue from the get go, which she believes could have been generating some income.
The focus now is on inspiring end of the year giving with their new subscriber base.
“So that’s kind of the focus right now is, is to see what, what money can be raised in this end of the year,” Paulsen says. “Mark and a couple of us are working on another strategy, just to reach out to the big donors, who could come up with more than $10 or $20 but could actually substantially add to the coffers with gifts.”
“I feel like the fun thing about this experience is that it’s just been such a glass, half full experience,” Bzdek says. “I had [a] lot of fun and a lot of leeway, honestly, to experiment with what I think might work and help grow the audience and keep the audience engaged.”
Indiegraf has helped over 120 publications across North America start, grow and manage an independent news business. Interested in joining Indiegraf’s growing network? We are happy to answer any questions.
