Mid-County Post Calls it Quits

For 23 years, the Mid-County Post has kept it local, printing a selection of stories on Capitola, Soquel and Aptos every two weeks for readers in this area.

But its June 14-June 28, 2012 edition is officially its last.

Mary Bryant helped start the paper in 1989. While she had no intention of staying on long, decades later, she still found herself on the reporting grind. But this year, it became clear that the Post was no longer sustainable.

"The double punch of a burgeoning and remarkably cheaper Internet market for advertising, together with the cliff-fall the economy took a few years back, has been a lot to absorb," she wrote in the Post's final output.

While she strongly believes in the purpose of her publication, she wrote that "the chance to see the paper thrive as it did in earlier times is remote."

In many respects, it simply comes down to money.

"What we have lost is the depth in the editorial department as ad revenues have shrunk and some businesses have struggled to pay their bills on time," Bryant wrote. "We haven't seen the huge cuts others have taken, but we were never that large to begin with."

In her goodbye column, more or less a love letter to Mid-County and a reflection on the last two and a half decades, she outlined a few of the goals she has for Capitola, Soquel and Aptos. Those wishes for the future include

• "I would hate to someday see the hillsides between Aptos and Watsonville turned into housing, or Pogonip bulldozed for another indoor mall." 
• "The smaller parcels, like Capitola's Rispin or the many parks that have been opened in Live Oak, need to be preserved." 
• "If we have to stop using plastic bags to keep our oceans clean and vital, then in Santa Cruz we're the kind of people willing to do that."
• Referring to the creation of Anna Jean Cummings Park instead of low-income housing: "I can't tell you how many times I have watched a council plan a project for months only to have the citizens show up and tell them how it is going to be. You need to stay in charge."

Bryant wrote that while the Post is closing, she is personally financially stable because of a new business venture that is quickly growing.

Here at Patch, we want to provide robust local coverage, just like the Mid-County post did for 23 years. So tell us, how can we pick up the slack? What kinds of stories did you like reading in the post that you want to be able to read on Patch? What are some of your favorite memories from the Post? Tell us in the comments!