Now in production: The Tenderloin Voice

Production has begun on the inaugural set of content to be published by our Tenderloin newsroom, and we can now proudly share its name: The Tenderloin Voice.

What does “production” mean? We are ironing out work agreements with community contributors and collaborating with them on editing. We’re drafting articles. We’re laying out pages for the zine where stories will live, and configuring a website to host digital versions of that content. (A zine is a low-cost version of a magazine with a do-it-yourself aesthetic, and the format has historically been a vehicle for small or marginalized communities to share information.)

We’re also compiling and assessing initial responses to our survey, in which we ask future readers of the Voice to share their preferred coverage topics and publication formats — we’re starting with print and might produce other media as we grow. While not every preference will be reflected in our first batch of published content, this input will help guide our editorial decisions once we’re up and running. If you’re part of the Tenderloin community, we welcome your thoughts in the survey, which you can take here. If you don’t have time or want to see some of our stories before you weigh in, not to worry, the survey will remain open going forward. Feedback and listening will be essential parts of our operation in perpetuity. 

In short, the infrastructure we discussed last week is coming together, and now it’s time to build out the rest of our newsroom. This is a pretty involved process and we have all hands on deck, so after this dispatch, we’ll pause newsletter updates until we can announce a precise launch date. 

We’ll see you around the neighborhood — and soon, we’ll have our first issue in hand!