Final print edition of the Anderson Valley Advertiser coming out this week – The Ukiah Daily Journal

Latest print edition of the Anderson Valley Advertiser available for purchase from the Mendocino Book Company. (Justine Frederiksen/The Ukiah Daily Journal)

The last printed copy of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, a weekly newspaper that has covered Mendocino County since 1952, arrived in local stores this week.

Weeks before the May 1, 2024 edition went to print, longtime editor Bruce Anderson was asked why he decided to publish his newspaper exclusively online, and about the future of print newspapers:

Q. Why are you suspending your print edition?

A. The decline that comes with age, and a general inability to do the demanding work of print journalism at the level that I think it should be done, all because of the energy shortages that come with age.

Q. What do you mean by “suspending” your print edition? Does this mean you might revive it?

A. We’re done. I’m half dead, my most important colleague, Mark Scaramella, prevents heart problems.

Q. How many print subscribers do you have? How many online subscribers do you have? Is there a lot of overlap, or are they completely different animals?

A. There is not much overlap, is my general impression. Printsubs started to plummet as America got into portable gadgets. Interest in printing also waned as the latest generation of printing began to move toward the great library in the sky. We have more online subscribers these days and ahem, it seems we have become a daily must-read for the intelligentsia of this province, using intelligentsia in the loosest sense.

Q. What do you know about your print subscribers? Who are they and why are they given the paper copy?

A. Not much other than that many of them are/were as attached to print media as we are, and enjoyed the quality of much of the writing. Our weekly product has always been lively reading for many years.

Q. What do you see as the future of print journalism? Does it have one?

A. No future. It is over. Few people get their information from print media, hence a looming presidential race between senility and depravity, which would not have happened when people could read and words had specific meanings.