Dear readers of the American Canyon Current
Dear readers of the American Canyon Current
We have received many messages and phone calls after last week’s announcement by Highway 29’s CEO Marc Hand that he is stepping away from the company and shuttering its publications.
The recurring question was: What can we do to help?
Highway 29 Media, formed in 2022, publishes the Calistoga Tribune, the Yountville Sun, the American Canyon Current and the Napa County Times, a paywall free county-wide site. A bilingual weekly newsletter, Conéctate, has been on hiatus since last December.
The company was formed in 2022 to save the Tribune and the Sun, two weeklies, that had been founded by two women, Pat Hampton in Calistoga, and Sharon Stensaas in Yountville, who both were ready to retire after more than two decades of serving their communities.
The vision, however, was to expand from this base to provide locally owned coverage of all of Napa County. At the top of the list was to create a news source in American Canyon, the fastest growing city in Napa County.
In the summer of 2025, two interns, Xavey Bzdek and Fiona Ulrich, from UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism helped launch the American Canyon Current. Within two months, more than 2,000 people had signed up to receive the weekly newsletter.
The dynamic duo, as we called them, had to return to school at the end of August, but we were lucky again when two talented journalists stepped in to keep the Current flowing: Kerana Todorov had written for The American Canyon Eagle before it closed in 2018, and Griffin Jones moved from San Francisco to begin a two-year assignment through the California Local News Fellowship, administered by UC Berkeley.
Xavey stayed on board, juggling his schoolwork with his entertaining Monday update, “This Week, Next Week.”
We also got invaluable support from writers in the American Canyon community including Jobeth Pascual, Kasama Lee, Jesse Garcia, Brielle Sacatani and Joan Bennett.
Paul Franson, editor and publisher of NapaLife, a weekly newsletter detailing food, wine, arts and entertainment news, weighed in with “Paul’s Picks.” He may be a Napa resident, but Paul is a huge fan of American Canyon.
“Are we going to lose the Current?” one reader asked after the news of the shutdown broke.
The short answer is: no. It may, however, take some time to reorganize and relaunch. Our goal is to have a new website up and running by the end of summer.
What can you do to help?
First of all, stay in touch. One of our editors, Lisa Adams Walter, has created a link to sign up for news. We will provide it as we have it. You will likely see Kerana and Griffin around town, working on stories, but please do share your own ideas, suggestions and stories.
Most of all, thanks for reading.
Highway 29 staff
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