Our zine puts news in the community’s hands — literally

According to one community member, it’s “the realization of a dream”: The Tenderloin Voice print zine is out. 

From early on in our conversations with community members about this newsroom, we hoped to provide a print product of some kind. Not everyone has reliable internet access or is comfortable online. Print has (literal and metaphorical) weight and heft. And our phones and computers are where emails, notifications, and stress live — most people want to spend less time on their screens, not more. 

But this zine is also the continuation of a legacy. The “dream” comment calls to mind the storied and beloved Tenderloin Times, a venerated multilingual print newspaper that served the neighborhood from 1977 to 1994. 

The remark, and others like it, was also an affirmation that we are making this newsroom for and with the community. Another reader told us she was happy to see people she knew reflected on the page, in photos and bylines alike. 

Maybe that’s why these zines are absolutely flying out the door. We can’t keep up with demand and are perpetually running out of toner. Which is a great problem to have! This isn’t a product in search of a market, it’s something people want to receive. That’s obvious in the way people light up when they see it. They ask, “Do you have a website?” And then we put the zine in their hands, right then and there, and this happy quiet washes over them.

“Oh, wow,” they often say.

This experience has also underscored an important fact about the Tenderloin community: It’s full of helpers. Because we’ve been around and building relationships with people for more than six months, we have dozens of willing distribution partners who are helping us get the zine to their neighbors, colleagues, and friends. When we mentioned running out of printer supplies, we immediately got requests for the PDF file so community members could print a stack themselves. And there are plenty of volunteers ready to fold and staple fresh copies. 

We’re also learning some things about how to make a print media product on a shoestring budget in 2026. I’ve become our resident layout designer and printer tech, Daphne is the zine distribution coordinator managing a dizzying array of handoffs and deliveries, and Noah has become a one-man high-speed assembly line and quality control officer, carefully tracking our supply consumption. All of us are used to being newsroom multitools, so we feel at home. We’re also starting to understand the full scope of what we’ve taken on.

Initially, we decided to create a zine that we’d print and prep in-house because that approach would afford us a great deal of flexibility and control. Say the first issue saw low demand. We could stop at 150 copies and move on (although in this case, the opposite happened). If something needed adjusting or we found a typo on page 3, we could stop in the middle of a print run and fix it. We also wouldn’t need to send the file out to some distant print shop and wait a week for production and delivery. 

We were right about all of these things, but there were tradeoffs. Layout was extremely labor-intensive and took much longer than expected. Troubleshooting was also a time sink. And since this newsroom is fully powered by just three people, none of whom can do the work full-time, any drain on our time or energy comes at the expense of reporting, editing, and fundraising. 

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not backing off of the zine idea. Issue 2 is coming soon. The incredibly positive reception from readers has made all of this feel very much worth it. But as we find our way to a sustainable operation, I think we have one clear lesson from Issue 1: Accept help when it comes. We’ll be looking to develop partnerships with other organizations that have ideas, resources, and capabilities that can make each issue better and farther-reaching than the last.

On the topic of accepting help, this is where we ask for yours. 

The generous donations made by many of you and our Tenderloin neighbors have given us the momentum to launch. But we also have big plans for 2026 and we need financial support so we can keep publishing the community’s stories and the news and information that they want, the way they want it.

Not every contribution has to be monetary!  We are happy to schedule a call so that you can get to know us and learn more about why this work is so important, in case that helps you tell your network about us. We’re also looking to be connected with people and organizations that might be interested in funding our vision. If you have ideas, reply to this email (if you’re reading this newsletter from your inbox) — it will reach all of us. Or send a message to hello@newsrelaynetwork.org.

As you may have guessed, our limited staff time has also kept us from delivering regular updates in this newsletter. Rest assured that this does not mean nothing is happening. News Relay Network will continue to develop its model and methods — for now, mainly by building the Tenderloin Voice. Whenever we hit a big milestone or learn an important new lesson, we’ll be back in your inbox to share. 

Until then, thank you for your support and coming along on this journey with us.