Amid the emergence of indie media outlets around the country, a new journalist collective is set to launch this summer in San Francisco, coalescing writers, editors and designers who have plenty of local newsmaking experience.
COYOTE Media Collective is San Francisco’s first journalist-owned publication and it will cover the nine-county Bay Area with news stories, culture pieces, longform features, investigations, guides, commentary and more, said former SF Chronicle critic and columnist Soleil Ho.
The publication will be supported primarily by memberships, although non-members will have access to the site. The collective plans on offering a number of free articles each week, with subscribers getting “heavier-lift” stories such as investigative reports or food guides that have high upfront costs.
COYOTE’s site is slated to debut in late summer, Ho told Gazetteer.
“We’re modeling ourselves after peers like Defector and Hell Gate, fellow worker-owned newsrooms. We have worker buy-in, too, so we have to pay an amount of money to have a stake in the business,” Ho said. “We’re owners, not employees.”
Ho is one of 11 founding worker-owners at COYOTE, alongside fellow former Chronicle columnist Nuala Bishari, Amir Aziz, Alan Chazaro, Reo Eveleth, Estefany Gonzalez, Rahawa Haile, Daniel Lavery, Cecilia Lei, Emma Silvers, and Supriya Yelimeli. Their work has appeared across SF media, as well as in national publications including the New York Times Magazine, NPR, and ProPublica.
This week, COYOTE publicly announced its crowdfunding campaign to raise $80,000, which Ho says will help the collective begin operations as it seeks subscriptions and other revenue streams. It has already brought in nearly $60,000. Ho noted that the group is also seeking contributions from private donors.
“Foundations aren’t going to help you until you’ve actually made something, so down the road, we hope that happens,” Ho said. “With that and private donors, we’re going to be very clear about who gives us money, so if anyone gives us above a certain amount, we’ll disclose it on the site.”
As for any private investors?
“Oh, fuck no. No way,” Ho said with a laugh. “The complication is that we, the journalists, want to make our own decisions as worker-owners. Outside money would complicate that in a way that dilutes the mission.”
In the past, Ho had daydreams about the potential for a project just like COYOTE, but was working at the Chronicle and unsure about how to proceed. However, a disagreement with management led Ho to leave the newspaper in April. Bishari also departed that month, for separate reasons.
The following month, after several casual brainstorming sessions and one-on-one calls with interested Bay Area journalists and artists, an initial group including Ho and Bishari met to launch the project.
“Life is too short to be messing around doing things I don’t want to do, or not feeling respected as a journalist,” Ho said. “It was time to just make it happen.”
