The Sun Runner

Conceived in 1994, The Sun Runner magazine was born during the 1995 revitalization of 29 Palms - when this quiet desert community, asleep in an economic slump, suddenly awoke and began to reinvent itself.

 

   Residents and merchants were busy creating the Mural Project, cleaning up the streets, remodeling commercial facades, starting new visitor-friendly businesses, and spawning new annual events and fund-raisers for 29 Palms. A vehicle was needed to “get the word out” to the community and to the world. “Something is happening in 29 Palms: Catch the Spirit!” was the motto.

 

   Capturing the spirit of the renaissance, resident Vickie Waite founded The Sun Runner Arts & Entertainment Magazine, became its publisher & editor, and sought local writers and artists to contribute to its pages.

 

   The first issue was distributed on New Year’s Day, January 1, 1995, offering photography, art, intelligent writing, and a social calendar to a culture-hungry community. By January 3, the community’s response to this new publication was overwhelmingly positive. Subscriptions began rolling in. Advertisers began to call. The rest is history.

 

   Over the next nine-and-a-half years, Waite grew The Sun Runner’s coverage area, advertising, and distribution, to include all of the hi-desert/Morongo Basin. But wanting to eventually retire, Waite actively sought out someone to take over the growing publication.

 

  On June 1, 2004, hi-desert resident, award-winning journalist and musician, Steve Brown, joined The Sun Runner as publisher and executive editor to continue the magazine’s growth.

 

  In 2005, the Sun Runner Showcases were launched, intimate concert performances at the Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree. A host of regional, and even international musicians performed at the Showcases, prior to the Playhouse’s disastrous freeze and flood in January 2007 (the Playhouse remains closed in 2018). The Sun Runner also began hosting Sun Runner Salons, with featured guest authors and poets from around the region and continues to host literary events today. A free, weekly e-mail newsletter, the Sun Blast, was also added, along with a weekly radio show Friday mornings on KX96/92.1 FM (heard throughout the Morongo Basin and Coachella Valley). The Sun Runner began sponsoring arts events throughout the desert, from the Palm Springs Art Museum to Calico Ghost Town, while a new Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thesunrunner), and Twitter, added to the magazine’s reach.  In addition, The Sun Runner took an active cultural role, sponsoring the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum's annual Native FilmFest, as well as investigating charges of elder abuse perpetrated against a cultural icon of the desert, Marta Becket.

 

  As of 2007, The Sun Runner had expanded its editorial coverage and distribution network to include all of the California deserts region, and publishes three to four times (seasonally) as many copies of the magazine per issue as when Brown took over the publication in 2004, reaching more than 50,000 desert residents and visitors from El Centro and Borrego Springs, through the Coachella Valley/Palm Springs area and the hi-desert/Morongo Basin/Joshua Tree Gateway Communities, and on through the Mojave Desert to Ridgecrest and Death Valley. The magazine became increasingly involved with regional tourism efforts for the California deserts, as well as with its diverse cultural community, participating in efforts ranging from Operation Sun Runner (sending CDs from musicians around the country to our troops overseas), to speaking engagements, and producing a variety of events.

 

  Features such as the annual Desert Writers issue gave voice to creative spirits throughout the California deserts, while contributors to the magazine added to The Sun Runner’s regional voice that made it The Magazine of the Real California Desert. The 2011 and 2012 Desert Writers Celebrations were an active part of the international 100 Thousand Poets for Change project.

 

    As of July 1, 2008, The Sun Runner moved to Joshua Tree, central to the hi-desert communities the magazine calls home.

 

   In 2011, the magazine began limited distribution in Yuma, Arizona, as well as to many desert communities from Boron to the Salton Sea region. The Sun Runner was an active member of the California Deserts Visitors Association, and participated with the CDVA at the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 LA Times Travel & Adventure Show. These shows are the largest consumer travel shows in the country.

 

   More than 250 writers, poets, columnists, artists and photographers have contributed to the magazine to date. More than 100,000+ readers have visited our website from all over the globe, and we completed our new site in 2014 to support our increased presence in tourism and travel across the Southwest.

 

   The Sun Runner Magazine produced the Hwy 62 Art Tours Official Program for the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council’s 2010 annual art tours, as well as printed and distributed 100,000 rack cards promoting tourism in Death Valley. The magazine has printed the Desert Institute’s course catalogs, visitor attractions maps for the City of Twentynine Palms, the Real Route 62 Visitors Guide (the official visitors guide for the Joshua Tree Gateway Communities, now in its third edition), and more.

 

  The biggest change for The Sun Runner Magazine was its move into the Southwest for its 20th year in publishing. To complement our PBS TV travel show, Southwest Stories with Steve Brown, that began airing in September, 2013 across southern California to 5.7 million households with 18 million viewers on KVCR PBS, Monday nights at 7:30 p.m., the magazine expanded into the Southwest with our editorial coverage.  Southwest Stories with Steve Brown, has provided an exciting opportunity for the magazine to include the California deserts with the American Southwest, and to provide a cross-media platform for advertisers to reach a growing travel audience interested in the Southwest. Learn more about Southwest Stories and watch episodes and special features in its section on this website.

 

   The Sun Runners’ 2011 Desert Travel Issue was the biggest issue in the magazine’s history, with 84 pages of desert travel fun reaching more than 60,000 readers across Southern California. The 2011/2012 Desert Travel Issue was distributed once again at the LA Travel & Adventure Show, the biggest consumer travel show in the country, and visitor locations throughout the desert and Southern California.  And 2014 saw the launch of our first Best of the Southwest Desert Travel Issues, which was a hit at the travel shows.  Sun Runner publisher, Steve Brown, was named president of the California Deserts Visitors Association in 2009, and served in that position for 3.5 years.

 

   Who says there’s nothing to do in the desert? Not us. Adventure abounds! While times have changed, and we now focus most of our attention on our online content, we still host occasional and custom desert tours, introducing adventurous visitors to some of the unique wonders of our deserts. We have hosted multiple tours to Randsburg, Ridgecrest, and Little Petroglyph Canyon, as well as Route 66 Through the Mojave, co-hosted by Jim Conkle, one of the world's leading experts on Route 66.  We're also partnering with Mojave Watch to help educate and inform desert residents on issues that will impact the desert (and its residents).  Our 2018 Joshua Tree Gateway Communities Visitor Guide will be the third edition of the area's only comprehensive visitor guide.

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     We're also seeking sponsors for the third season of Southwest Stories, which has established national distribution to all 350 PBS stations across the U.S., and will also include an OTT TV presence with its own channel on Roku, as well as an online, social, and mobile video presence.  

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