Remembering Ysmael Villegas, Riverside County’s First Medal of Honor Recipient

Hello Riverside,

On Thursday, two readers stopped me at an event to say thanks: one for our City Council candidate coverage throughout this year, the other for our live election results so they could start each day this week with a better idea of who Riverside's future leaders will be.

That coverage exists because readers like you pay for it.

Today we're launching our reader drive. So fair warning: you're going to be hearing from me a lot over the next two weeks, talking about Riverside, the Raincross Gazette, and a whole lot about money.

The Gazette has a long way to go before we're truly the newsroom Riverside deserves. I tend to look at our work through a critical lens, wanting us to be better, faster, more helpful and relevant to your everyday life, because that's what I think this city needs. But even while I'm still relentlessly chasing that vision, I'm really proud of what we've accomplished so far.

Along the way, I've come to learn that one of the best ways to build trust is to lead with vulnerability, and that's the purpose of this letter. So I want to tell you the truth about the Raincross Gazette.

What we stand for

As this operation grew from a dream, to a side project, to my full-time job, and now to the full-time jobs of Amy and Micaela, I realized I needed to define how we'd build the newsroom Riverside deserves. It comes down to three things: love, integrity, and ambition.

Love. Love is a funny word. I love my wife, I love my kids. I love this city, and I love my neighbors. And I love a carne asada burrito. At the Gazette, love means working for the good of others at a cost to yourself. Love isn't a feeling, it's a commitment. It's why every story we publish is free to read, for everyone.

Integrity. Integrity means doing what you said you would do, owning your mistakes, and taking responsibility for their impact on others. It's why we work to make our corrections so visible, why we tell you who our advertising partners are, and why I write direct messages like this one. When we call ourselves Riverside's newsroom, we're making you a promise. I feel an obligation to keep that promise far better than we can today.

Ambition. For us, ambition means always leveling up so we can serve you better. Ambition is a relentless commitment to do whatever it takes to deliver the best possible work by maximizing every possible resource. Ambition is what made me believe I could start a newsroom from scratch after Riverside's century-old daily paper had been stripped for parts.

How it works

In December 2020, a month before we sent our first edition, I published a short manifesto. It starts with four words: "We believe in Riverside." I still do.

From that very first edition, I designed the Gazette to work like a flywheel: quality journalism grows our audience, a growing audience brings in advertising and paid members, and that revenue gets reinvested in our reporting, tools, and people, which makes the journalism better and turns the wheel again.

The audience side of that wheel is working. For our first two years, I struggled to crack 350 subscribers and dreamed about hitting 500. Now 20,000 of you read the Gazette. I used to do all of the "reporting" myself, and the reader replies correcting my spelling and grammar served as our editor. Now Amy and Micaela work full time, alongside a handful of awesome local freelancers.

Here's the truth. People hear 20,000 readers and assume the Gazette is set. And I get why. What's real is the journalism you can count on and an engaged Riverside audience that local businesses can reach. What hasn't caught up yet is revenue. Right now a lot of my time goes toward building that financial foundation, because the stronger it gets, the more of my time goes back into making what you read better.

We're close to having that wheel truly running. When it is, my job changes: I get to sit in the middle and give my time to whatever needs it most. Making sure the journalism is tip-top. Finding new ways to reach you, maybe an app, or short social explainers that help Riverside's younger generations understand the issues shaping the city they'll inherit. Paid members are how we get there. Each one turns the wheel faster.

Where you come in

Every week, readers ask me to send a reporter to cover something they care about. I'd love to say yes to every one of them. Right now, I almost always have to say no.

Our whole newsroom is one full-time reporter, a managing editor, a handful of freelancers, and me. We're working to make the Gazette sustainable enough to become the newsroom Riverside deserves.

You already know what the Gazette does for you. The events you found in our calendar. The City Hall decision you heard about first. The new spot across town you tried because we wrote about it. Now picture that for all of Riverside.

A sports reporter whose job is our kids, at the city's biggest games, every sport, girls and boys, and courtside when UCR and CBU meet: two Division I schools, one conference, a crosstown rivalry few cities have. A reporter at every opening, from the newest kitchen in any neighborhood to D'Elia's at 70.

And reporters with weeks, not hours, to dig through a 901-page city report, untangle what happened to the Mission Inn's artifacts, and follow the homelessness money from announcement to street. Who's out there, who's helping, who's accountable when it isn't working.

You can build that newsroom.

If all 20,000 of us who read the Gazette chipped in $5 a month, that would pay for about 15 full-time reporters keeping you and your neighbors informed, holding the powerful accountable, and telling the story of this city.

It starts with one. Today, 791 Riversiders are paid members. At 1,000 members, we can pay for one full-time reporter. My first goal on the way there is 900 members by November 22. We need 109 more.

Can you be one of them?

Whatever you decide, the Gazette stays free for everyone, especially those who can't chip in. When you become a paid member, you're keeping it free for your neighbors too.

Thank you,

Hello Riverside and Happy Tuesday,

I was checking our paid member count all day yesterday, and it keeps pointing me to one thing: hope.

On Sunday we launched our 2026 Member Drive with an ambitious vision: 151 new paid members by November 22. That's nearly twice as many as our best campaign ever, last December, when 81 new members joined.

I set that goal because I believe something has clicked between Riverside and the Raincross Gazette this year: enough of you have come to see real value in the journalism our small team works so hard to produce, and I trusted you'd be ready to say yes if I asked for help.

Boy, was I right.

41 of you have become paid members of the Gazette since Sunday.

I've gotten an email for each new paid member, and every one filled me with joy. Not just for the future of this newsroom, but for Riverside.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it:

"What we know about Riverside determines what we believe about it, and what we believe about Riverside determines its future."

Every new paid member is one of your neighbors and mine choosing to believe in this city.

Honestly, I felt a real weight lifting off my shoulders. Like, we're all in this together.

So thank you, thank you, thank you. To everyone who was already a paid member, and to those of you who stepped up over the last 48 hours.

Every newsroom answers to whoever pays for it, and I'd rather that be you.

Choosing a different path

Experts in this business keep telling me how a newsroom should pay its bills:

• Put up a paywall.
• Run ads in the middle of the story.
• Cover the page with a pop-up ad and a microscopic X.
• Autoplay a video ad.
• Stick an ad to the bottom of your screen.
• Lock the story until you sign in.

You know what I'm talking about. It's what you and I put up with all over the internet.

But the first time you come to Riverside, you can feel it's a special place. Our newsroom should be special too. So I'm choosing to do things differently, at a real cost. We run ads, but never inside the story or in the way of what you're reading, and I won't put our news behind a paywall. Instead, I'm asking you to help.

Because cities without strong local news pay a price. Researchers have found that when a local paper closes or shrinks, your city pays more to borrow with your tax dollars, and fewer people run for office, so you get fewer choices on your ballot. Yet only 12% of American adults paid for local news in the past year.

Riverside has about 248,000 adults. If we just matched that share, we'd have about 30,000 members, enough for about 30 full-time reporters.

On Sunday I pictured 15 and thought that was bold. Just matching that share carries us well past it. Maybe I wasn't believing in Riverside enough.

What this could become

If neighbors keep choosing to believe like this, we won't just hit our goal. We'll build a newsroom, one reporter at a time.

We already have a reporter covering City Hall. Now picture more reporters with time to find out what's really going on. One who covers the museums, galleries and creative scene, so you know what's worth your Saturday. Another who sits through your kids' school board meetings, reads the test scores and data, and explains what it means for their classroom. Another who follows charities and neighborhood groups helping other Riversiders, so you know where to pitch in. Add enough, and that's the newsroom Riverside deserves.

It starts with one. At 1,000 members, we can pay for one full-time reporter. Today, 791 Riversiders are paid members, and my first goal on the way there is 900 members by November 22. We need 109 more.

Can you be one of them?

The Gazette stays free for everyone, including those who can't chip in. When you become a paid member, you keep it free for your neighbors too.

Best,

P.S. If you've already joined, thank you again. It means the world to me.