A conversation with Penngrove’s Naomi Starkman, who runs Civil Eats with Editor-at-Large Paula Crossfield, about digital media, winning a James Beard award, sustainable agriculture, and living in Sonoma County.

What does the James Beard Foundation award mean to you?

I do think it’s a big deal that the James Beard Foundation recognized us, for a number of reasons. We’re a blog and we were named “publication of the year” amongst many different formats. Traditionally, they might name a magazine or some other kind of print edition, and I think it’s quite a statement on their behalf that they are supporting sustainable agriculture, because they are really known as a foodie organization that normally recognizes chefs, restaurants, books and food writing, and I think they are trying to elevate [sustainable agriculture] and are doing it at a time when they as an organization are also taking so steps to identify more with sustainability.

This is something that we’ve been doing for five years, and we know that we’ve been ahead of the curve. But I think we’ve reached a critical mass, and their recognition brings us to the front of the pack and allows people to say, in fact, critical, more content-driven reporting on food systems issues is really important.

What do you think this means for digital media?

I think we are unique. I like to call Civil Eats a community supported blog, kind of like community supported agriculture. We started because we found there was a lack of reporting in issue areas, and at the same time there was this burgeoning food movement. We tried to create a platform and a space for dialogue on important food-movement issues. It’s totally unique in that way. It’s not just a food blog; it’s actually a beloved space for people in the food movement, and for a long time we’ve worked with people who are not traditional writers—chef, farmers, advocates—people who are new to writing but who have something to say and didn’t have a place to say it. That’s different than a regular glossy publication and it is kind of scrappy, but I think there is a reason why Michael Pollan has called us the best online food and politics magazine. We know we’ve started a trend that’s leaking into larger [mainstream] reporting.

You’ve been volunteer-based but recently completed a $100,000 Kickstarter campaign. What’s the business model going forward?

With Kickstarter, we raised the most money ever for any news site of any subject, and that was really based on the community and the feeling that they had a piece of the pie. There was this great sense that if we didn’t fund it, it wasn’t going to happen and in order to do that, we needed people to step up. Going forward, Kickstarter is just that—it’s a project to help kickstart long-term funding of the site. In order to cultivate new writers and new voices and reach a wider audience, we need to hire and bring on other reporters. We’ve been able to hire and pay our managing editor, Twilight Greenway, and my goal for this year is to be able to hire a reporter based in Washington, D.C., to be on the ground and on the front lines. We’re not a nonprofit. I’d suggest we’re a “no-profit.” We’re not doing anything that has a profit model except for paying for reporting. But we have foundation support and individual support, and hopefully down the road we’ll have a membership-support model as well.

Where would you like to be in five to 10 years?

That’s what I’m in the process of figuring out. For so long I’ve had to serve as editor and now I can serve more as a publisher, and so my job is really to think about where does Civil Eats grow and go. I’ve always joked way before the Huffington Post had a vertical for food that we were like the Huffington Post for food. I would like for us to have that breadth and depth and multimedia component and video and really be like a news channel for food-systems issues.

Why do you live in Penngrove?

I love Sonoma County. I grew up in the Bay Area, and Sonoma County represents to me the best of why we love in the Bay Area. It still has a relative amount of ag land and Petaluma is my downtown, and it still has that old, cool vibe and it’s authentic and has local stores. I live in Penngrove because I live in a beautiful, bucolic place that’s not that far from the freeway, not that far from San Francisco, and it entitles me to incredible natural beauty and peace and quietude.

The Bohemian was a winner in the 2013 California Newspapers and Publisher’s Association Better Newspapers Contest. Three times over.

First place, Editorial Comment – How We Represent by Gabe Meline

In this 2012 article, Gabe passionately and rationally argues for Measure Q, which would have allowed for district elections in Santa Rosa City Council elections. The measure ultimately failed, but perhaps in a bit of foreshadowing, Gabe points out that Roseland, an island of County jurisdiction in the middle Santa Rosa, doesn’t get to vote in any Santa Rosa city elections. Maybe measure Q will come back in another form, and pass, when Roseland is officially part of Santa Rosa.

Second place, Investigative Reporting – Wrung Dry by Rachel Dovey

This 2013 article brought Rachel to the outskirts of Marin County, where residents were paying over $600 per month for water in a time when the average home in the county was paying less than 20 percent of that. Residents were capturing shower runoff in jars to water plants. A private water utility company was running the show in their area, and residents were at their wits end with how to pay for life’s most basic need.

Blue Ribbon Finalist – Special Section (Best Of issue)

This groundbreaking issue took the idea that all newspapers will be forced to online-only formats, crumpled it up and threw it in the face of pundits who predict the death of print media. Our Magic and Illusion theme featured creative print-only ideas, like a Mad Magazine—style fold-in, an article printed backwards that had to be held up to a mirror to read, one printed as a swirling vortex, one printed in a way to force the reader to flip the paper over to experience the sensation the article was talking about, and other cool, print-only tricks.

Congratulations are in order to everyone who worked on these issues and stories. Alternative weeklies like us don’t win many CNPA awards, since the organization includes all papers in the state, including big players like the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. We even have our own national group, Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) www.altweeklies.com that also does annual awards. CNPA says the plaques are being shipped to us soon, and though Gabe and Rachel are no longer with the paper, they’ve been informed of their achievements and are stoked. Totally stoked, to be exact.

The Bohemian won two CNPA awards last year as well: first place for Special Section and second place for Best Feature Story.

While on the subject of honors, Bohemian news editor Tom Gogola’s story on fracking is one of AAN’s top stories of the week this week. With hundreds of newspapers and thousands of stories each week to choose from, AAN picked ours. It’s a good indicator that we’re doing something right.

Here’s to continued success!