top of page

Welcome to Paradise - The Palm Canyon Paradise - our newest publication


My desert journalism career began as editor for The Public Record, in Palm Springs, based in the Palm Springs Life building. Shortly after, I submitted a freelance piece for the Coachella Valley's alternative weekly, the Desert Post Weekly, and was hired as news editor.

At the Weekly, we had a talented team, keen on stirring things up and making a name for ourselves. Though we were the bastard stepchild of The Desert Sun, we had our own offices and thrived on investigative reporting, taking the stories others would find too political or controversial. We had a good run there for a few years, until The Desert Sun decided to gut our paper and its staff. Our team disbanded and moved on to other positions. For me, I purchased The Sun Runner Magazine from its founder, Vickie Waite, who had launched the publication on New Year's Day, 1995. I bought The Sun Runner for my birthday in 2004.

Since that time, The Sun Runner has expanded to have a more regional focus across the Southwest. We began producing Southwest Stories, our regional travel show for KVCR PBS TV, which has broadcast our first two seasons to 5.7 million households (roughly 18 million people), across all of southern California. We're currently working on our third season.

I served as president of the California Deserts Visitors Association for 3.5 years, and promoted desert travel at the country's largest travel show for nine years. The Sun Runner began producing the Joshua Tree Gateway Communities Visitor Guide, the only visitor guide for the Joshua Tree National Park communities (we're currently producing the third edition of the guide).

Then, in 2015, wanting to get back to more local hi-desert storytelling, we launched a new monthly newspaper, The Joshua Tree Tortoise Telegraph. With 2.5 million annual visitors to Joshua Tree National Park, our sleepy little backwater went to being one of the hottest hipster tourism destinations in the country. The paper includes a print and digital edition, as well as a mobile-friendly website with additional content, and social media. We enjoy mixing mediums!

The paper proved to be popular with both visitors and locals, its hyper-local and positive approach toward its coverage (the paper only includes stories about hi-desert people, places, and events), combined with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, proved to work well - even with hipsters.

Now, we're launching an upbeat monthly hyper-local newspaper for downtown Palm Springs - The Palm Canyon Paradise. The Paradise launches this June - the 13th anniversary of me taking the reins here at The Sun Runner.

I'm looking forward to diving into Palm Springs stories, working with the downtown community, and creating a fun publication that will captivate and engage visitors and locals alike. Palm Springs is rich ground for storytelling, with lots of personality and personalities, culture, history, and surprises, to share with readers.

We're going to try to get lots of folks involved in the paper as well - from the Cathedral City High School DATA (Digital Arts and Technology Academy), to Palm Springs High School writers, local organizations, writers, historians, chefs, bartenders - you name it. The more the merrier when it comes to editorial contributors.

We want our readers involved as well - send us a photo of your favorite dish at a Palm Springs restaurant, tell us about your favorite shopkeeper on Palm Canyon, or your favorite docent at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Have a beautiful shot of Indian Canyons? Send it to us. A gorgeous sunrise? Send it to us. A spectacular panorama from the Tram? Send it to us. We'll even put together some prizes to keep things interesting.

And, of course, if you operate a business, organization, event, etc. that wants to reach Palm Springs visitors, please consider advertising. Call us at 760-820-1222 or email us at sunrunnerads@gmail.com for the latest advertising specials and how we can work to build your business.

Main Street Palm Springs members - contact us for members only introductory ad rates!

We'll see you on Palm Canyon - in paradise!

bottom of page