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The Point Reyes Light is one of the few weekly newspapers to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. In 1979, when the paper's circulation was only 2,750, it received the Pulitzer gold medal for Meritorious Public Service as a result of a series of exposès and editorials about the Synanon cult. The cult was not only abusing its tax-exempt status, it had also turned to violence in an attempt to silence critics. The violence culminated in October 1978 when Synanon members tried to murder a lawyer by planting a 4.5-foot rattlesnake in his mailbox. The lawyer was bitten but survived, and The Light was the first to reveal that cult leaders had orchestrated the attack. The newspaper, which takes its name from the famous lighthouse on Point Reyes, was founded in 1948 as The Baywood Press; it changed its name to The Point Reyes Light in 1966. Located in Point Reyes Station, a town of 675 people 40 miles north of San Francisco, The Light serves 13 small towns in a dairy-ranching region known as West Marin. Its publisher is David V. Mitchell, who was also publishing the newspaper at the time of its Pulitzer Prize. The Light has six fulltime staff members (including three reporters) and three parttime staffers. In addition, several community members also contribute columns and photos. The Light can be reached by telephone at (415) 663-8404 or (415) 488-4025. Its address is: Point Reyes Light, Box 210, Point Reyes Station, California 94956. Light advertising: Rate Card PDF (52k), Sample Ad Rates PDF (24k) The email address is pr[at]ptreyeslight.com (Replace the [at] with @) |