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OJAI MAGAZINE | FALL 2021
EDITOR’S NOTE Your favorite regional Ojai life magazine may look familiar on the outside (I have no doubt the stories will engage, surprise, inform and touch your heart), but we’ve been busy changing under the cover. Ojai Magazine, a product of the Ojai Valley News, is now owned by Ojai Media LLC. I am thrilled to inform you that a few local folks, including yours truly, who believe deeply in the value of preserving Ojai’s local professional news source, have assumed the mantle of our community’s 130-year-old journal of record and its quarterly magazine. The Ojai Valley News is a cornerstone of our valley’s cultural connectivity, and we are honored to carry it forward. In case you are not aware, buying a small local newspaper is not a fiscally sound investment, as evidenced by their dwindling numbers. One in five newspapers in the U.S. closed in the 15 years prior to 2019, and 90 more have closed during the pandemic. I want to thank my philanthropic investors, who join me in taking this risk during uncertain times. We share great affection for our community and faith that it will continue to grow and support its award winning local newspaper. Our dedicated news and magazine teams are poised to write the next few chapters in Ojai’s rich history with truth and passion. We, dear readers, are here, sharing this moment in time and a common experience. We are a part of something together, and as an owner/publisher of Ojai Valley News and editor of Ojai Magazine, I invite you to participate in Ojai’s shared story. It’s how we build community, preserve our history, and shape the place we want to live in. In my 20 years of Ojai life, bearing and raising children, working, playing, laughing, crying; and during three years as publisher of the newspaper and editor of the magazine, my roots, investment and love for the Ojai Valley have grown deep. I stand in the place of not knowing what the future will bring but considering myself fortunate to live in interesting times with an opportunity to report on them. Come what may, the people of our valley deserve a free press, the power to know, the ability to become better connected, and to have their history preserved through well told stories for another 130 years. The mission of the Ojai Magazine is to celebrate the people and the cultural produce of Ojai. And by sharing the tales of times present and past, to grow the affectionate spirit of our community and to reflect it outward beyond the boundaries of this sacred valley. Thank you for reading this Fall issue.
Laura Rearwin Ward With affection,
M A G A Z I N E
EDITOR / PUBLISHER Laura Rearwin Ward
ASSISTANT EDITOR Georgia Schreiner
WRITERS
Karen Lindell • Perry Van Houten Kerstin Kuhn • Bill Locey Steve Sprinkel • David LaBelle Lee Roberts • Jessica Ciencin Henriquez Robin Goldstein • Drew Mashburn
DESIGNER Paul Stanton
PRODUCTION
Tori Behar • Jodie Miller • Mimi Walker
DIRECTOR OF SALES Linda Snider
CIRCULATION Ally Mills
CONTACT US
team@ojaivalleynews.com advertising@ojaivalleynews.com Phone: 805.646.1476 206 N Signal Street, Suite, G Ojai, CA 93023 ©2021 OJAI MEDIA LLC OJAIVALLEYNEWS.COM
Fall cover photo: Matt Henriksen by Emma Larkan @emmalarkan_ photography PUBLISHED SINCE 1982 BY THE OJAI VALLEY NEWS
