Lookout Santa Cruz
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''Lookout Santa Cruz'' is a digital newspaper launched in November 2020 based in
Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish language, Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, California, Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population ...
. It was created by Ken Doctor, a media analyst who had studied the decline of local newspapers in the United States. Its parent company is Lookout Local. ''Lookout Santa Cruz'' receives philanthropic support, advertising revenue, and online subscription revenue. ''Lookout'' won a
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting is a Pulitzer Prize awarded for a distinguished example of breaking news Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue ...
in 2024 for its coverage of the
2022–2023 California floods Periods of heavy rainfall caused by multiple atmospheric rivers in California between December 31, 2022, and March 25, 2023, resulted in floods that affected parts of Southern California, the Central Coast (California), California Central Coas ...
.


History and operations

''Lookout Santa Cruz'' launched in October 2020 with about $2.5 million raised from philanthropy from organizations including the
Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...
, the Google News Innovation Challenge, and the
Silicon Valley Community Foundation The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is a donor-advised community foundation serving the Silicon Valley region. It is the largest charitable foundation in Silicon Valley. History Early history: 2006–2011 Silicon Valley Community Fo ...
. During its first year, it suffered from high turnover. Its three top editors and chief revenue officer left to work in other cities, and in February 2023, only two original staff members remained from the organization's October 2020 start. In April 2022, Doctor wrote that ''Lookout'' had a team of 13 people, ten in the newsroom and three in business. Most employees are paid $65,000 to $70,000 per year. The editorial staff at ''Lookout'' outnumbers that of the ''
Santa Cruz Sentinel The ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'' is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California, covering Santa Cruz County, California, and owned by Media News Group, which is controlled by Alden Global Capital. History The paper was owned by the McP ...
'', which had seven in early 2023, a decline from the 40 newsroom employees it had in the early 2000s. Ken Doctor, the newspaper's founder, frequently writes about the operations of ''Lookout Santa Cruz'' in his column for ''Nieman Journalism Lab''. In early 2023, Doctor said the company was on track to make a profit in 2023 and had 8500 paid subscribers. Doctor attended
University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...
in the 1970s, and after a career in journalism that included an alternative weekly paper in Oregon and the defunct
Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. It was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, allowing the latter to become the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States at the time ...
media company, he returned to Santa Cruz in the early 2010s. ''Lookout Santa Cruz'' won the 2024
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting is a Pulitzer Prize awarded for a distinguished example of breaking news Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue ...
for its community-focused coverage of the
2022–2023 California floods Periods of heavy rainfall caused by multiple atmospheric rivers in California between December 31, 2022, and March 25, 2023, resulted in floods that affected parts of Southern California, the Central Coast (California), California Central Coas ...
that destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses.


See also

*
Institute for Nonprofit News The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a non-profit consortium of nonprofit journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism. INN facilitates collaborations between member organizatio ...
* Nonprofit journalism


References

{{PulitzerPrize BreakingNews 2001–2025 Mass media in Santa Cruz County, California Newspapers established in 2020 2020 establishments in California Newspapers published in California