Who Is Printing the Calistoga Tribune Now?

In early 2002, Pat Hampton went looking for a photographer. She and her partner Ramona Asmus had just decided to start a newspaper in Calistoga. She had a staff of writers and ad salespeople but nobody to take pictures. She had also heard a rumor that a retired East Coast news photographer had bought a house on Cedar Street. She found him at a booth at the St. Helena Farmers' Market. He was Chick Harrity, who had spent 33 years in the White House press corps. Within a week, over lunch on his patio, he had agreed to be the new paper's photo coach.

Hampton told that story on the front page of the Calistoga Tribune's September 20, 2026 issue, next to Harrity's obituary. He died on September 9 at 87. The same front page announced that the paper itself was getting a second chance. The issue in Calistoga hands this fall looks like the Tribune and carries the Tribune's name. It also comes from a different setup than the paper of the last four years. One neighbor pays the printer for each edition, and the paper's future depends on a nonprofit that is still being formed.

Twenty Years, Then Four More

The Tribune began in April 2002 under Hampton and Asmus. Hampton had edited The Weekly Calistogan for 10 years before that. She has written that she figured if she owned the paper, she couldn't get fired. The masthead still lists the two of them as founders, "2002–2023."

In late 2022, the Press Democrat reported that a new group, Highway 29 Publishing, had bought the Tribune along with the Yountville Sun. Later coverage refers to the owner as Highway 29 Media. The plan was ambitious. The Napa Valley Register reported that Highway 29 meant to update both weeklies for a digital future, funded by memberships and donations as print advertising declined. It also wanted to build news coverage across Napa County, with more reporting in Spanish and more coverage of American Canyon.

On May 13, 2026, the Tribune's website announced that Highway 29's newsrooms would close and that May 22 would be the last day of publication. The Register reported that the explanation pointed to rising operating and printing costs and limited advertising support. The May 22 issue was the last one under that ownership.

Why the Masthead Is Headed Back to Calistoga

The Tribune's assets stayed tied to Calistoga because of how the 2022 purchase was financed.

According to the Register, the Napa Valley Community Foundation lent Highway 29 $132,000 to buy the Tribune, and the paper's assets were the collateral. The foundation also set up a Media & Democracy Fund in late 2022 to support the larger plan.

By August 2026, the Register reported, Highway 29 could no longer pay its debts as they came due. In a foundation newsletter, NVCF President Terence Mulligan and Chief Impact Officer Julia DeNatale acknowledged how hard it is to find a sustainable way to fund local journalism, writing that "commitment and hard work cannot make every difficult business model work."

A foreclosure agreement settled the $132,000 loan, and the foundation took control of the Tribune's assets. It plans to transfer them to a new nonprofit being formed by Calistoga residents, to be called Friends of the Calistoga Tribune. The September issue spells out one condition of the foundation's permission to revive the paper: it has to stay in nonprofit hands.

That condition means the Tribune is set to return as a Calistoga institution rather than as a brand someone could buy. The Yountville Sun took the other path. The Register reports that Gary Jabara, who owns Estate Yountville and V Marketplace, bought the Sun earlier this year and plans to expand its digital reach. The foundation said it had no role in that sale. Highway 29 bought the two papers together, and now their futures are separate.

The Bridge Editions

The paper that has kept coming while ownership is sorted out is paid for by one person. The Register reports that organizer Steven Pinsky has personally paid to print four monthly editions while the group gets organized. He hopes to bring back weekly publication, hire staff and name a publisher. In the Register's story, he gave his reason: "I did not want to live in a news desert, and I was mad enough to do something about it."

The September 20 masthead lists Pinsky as publisher. It labels the edition Volume 25, Issue 9, so the numbering runs straight through from the founding years. Annual subscriptions are $75 for digital, print or both, and the contact is [email protected].

The bridge only works for a while, and the committee says so plainly. Its front-page appeal says reporters and editors need living wages, printing and mailing costs are up, and subscriptions and advertising cover only part of the expenses. It is asking for $300,000 in pledges. When the issue went to press, $50,000 had been pledged, about one-sixth of the goal. Pledges go to [email protected]. The committee members are listed as:

• Clyde Long
• Dawnine Dwyer
• Jim Agius
• Christy Fitzpatrick-Webb
• Mother Tabitha
• Steven Pinsky

For scale, the $300,000 goal is close to the roughly $300,000 in community donations the foundation passed through to Highway 29 over the previous venture's life. The Register reports that, as far as the foundation knows, that money was spent. The town has already paid for this paper once. The revival is asking for about the same amount again, this time for a Calistoga-only paper to be held by a nonprofit that residents are still putting together.

What a Monthly Paper Can and Can't Carry

A monthly schedule changes what lands in the mailbox. The September issue shows the kind of thing a small-town weekly used to cover as a matter of routine. Its News in Brief page carried a City of Calistoga water-line flushing notice. It told customers to run cold water until it ran clear and to hold off on laundry during flushing to avoid stains. The same page announced Our Lady of Perpetual Help's Columbus Dinner at the parish hall on Washington Street. That dinner was October 10. A notice printed a month ahead works for a dinner but is too slow for a flushing schedule.

Harrity's obituary lists the events he photographed for the Tribune over 22 years: the July 4th Parade, the Christmas Bazaar, the Halloween Parade and the Tractor Parade. That list doubles as the town's fall and winter calendar, and most of it is coming up soon:

1. Trunk or Treat, Saturday, October 24, 2 to 4 p.m., at the Calistoga Fairgrounds. This is the city's free second annual event.
2. Halloween Parade, Saturday, October 31, at 6 p.m. It starts at Pioneer Park and runs along Lincoln Avenue to Fair Way.
3. Calistoga Farmers' Market, Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sharpsteen Plaza, with dates listed through November 28.
4. Rotary Club of Calistoga's 86th annual Community Bingo Night, Saturday, November 21, at the Boys and Girls Club. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and bingo starts at 6.
5. Lighted Tractor Parade, Saturday, December 5, 7 to 8 p.m.

The city and Visit Calistoga post these dates online, so the schedule doesn't depend on the paper. The photographs from the Halloween Parade, the names of the Rotary volunteers, and the record of who rode which tractor down Lincoln are another matter. For more than two decades they were kept in one place. Whether a weekly paper is there to print them again depends on how much of the $300,000 the town pledges, on Friends of the Calistoga Tribune getting formed, and on the foundation completing the planned transfer of the paper's assets.

In 2002, Hampton built the Tribune with a staff she could afford and a world-class photographer who happened to live on Cedar Street. In 2026, Pinsky is paying the printer himself until a nonprofit can take the paper over.

At Jeff Earl Warren, we've worked up and down this valley for three generations, and we know how much of Calistoga's history sits in the Tribune's back issues. If you have old copies, photographs or stories about the paper's early years in Calistoga, we'd be glad to hear them, and we're always happy to talk about the town.