RIP OCWeekly, And Thanks For The Memories

DANA POINT, CA — It was late in the day for reporter Anthony Pignataro. Just under the wire on Wednesday, he posted one last report to the OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper that told stories rarely focused on across the greater Orange County area. His story was "one of the most important he ever reported" and published as the time ran out for the publication.

His report, 'He Didn't Go Away' — 10 OC Women Describe Their Stalking Experiences exists because Pignataro first listened to two women, he wrote. Then, his perspective expanded due to eye-opening interviews with women who live from Long Beach to Dana Point.

This report was one of the final stories released to the alternative newspaper OC Weekly. The paper closed their doors and stopped the presses after almost 25 years of eye opening journalism. Other media often overlooked the stories they covered. Readers, staffers, and former employees now lament the loss of a valued community resource in the changing face of journalism.

Reporters and employees were notified the day before Thanksgiving, a post on the paper's Twitter account said.

"Adios, M*************. Today, the day before Thanksgiving, our owner Duncan McIntosh Company has decided to shut us down," the post said. "For the last quarter-century, we've tried to bring good stories to Orange County. It's been fun, but now we're done."

Irvine-based Duncan McIntosh Co. officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Former staffer, Nick Scho, tweeted, "This isn't just a sad day for journalism, It's a death in the family a day before Thanksgiving. I worked there half my lifetime and met most of my friends as well as my wife there. It was a great ride."

Award-winning investigative reporter Scott Moxley, tweeted, "As longest surviving OC Weekly reporter (8,811 days), am honored the job gave incredible freedom to investigate and expose scoundrels for a quarter-century."

The Duncan McIntosh Co., which publishes a variety of boating magazines and Editor and Publisher, also runs the Newport Boat Show and Lido Yacht Expo. It acquired the newspaper in February 2016 from the owner of the Village Voice and other alternative weeklies.

For many reporters, notes, and stories, interviews and ideas will remain quiet and untold.
This one was too important. The interviewees were women he knew around Orange County and Long Beach.

For the piece, he'd asked if they've ever dealt with a stalker.

"Some said yes immediately," he wrote in the story. "Others said no, then a few minutes later came back to me and said my question had jogged an old memory. Very few said they'd never had a stalker."

The report is chilling, and in textbook OCWeekly style, broaches a topic difficult to discuss from an angle not typically taken, keeping the subject's names off the record.

Pignataro, his report will live online for an undetermined length of time, but that doesn't matter. The most important thing is, he did what he set out to do and shared the words of ten different women who were brave enough to tell their story.

RIP OCWeekly. And thanks for the memories.