One of the biggest shocks to my system when I — a type-A queen all about quick turnarounds and addressing issues exactly when they arise — joined Moonshine Ink back in May 2019, was adapting to what we at the office call “Moonshine Time.”
As our readers likely know, we are a free, independent monthly print publication with a (again, free) website that includes both print content as well as online exclusives. We put out a roundup of news briefs every Friday, touching on various happenings during the preceding week, from special district decisions to free events to key hirings or departures and so on.
But what we really sink our teeth into is the print edition. The news articles especially are where we dive deep, exploring topics critical to our Truckee/North Tahoe community in ways that haven’t been addressed by any other news organization.
As Mountain Gazette editor and owner Mike Rogge wrote in 2023, “[Moonshine Ink is] holding up a mirror to who we are as a community.”
But as a primarily monthly focused newspaper with a core staff of eight, we have the tricky challenge of considering each edition’s timeline. For example, this edition, June 2026, runs June 11 to July 8. That means we’re planning for July 4 content in early May, when we sit down to discuss the June edition.
When news stories capture the nation’s interest, like the Liberty Utilities and NV Energy debacle earlier this year, we end up in an odd limbo state of watching approximately 1 million other outlets cover the situation while we’re working in the background to pull as many pieces together as possible for a publication date a few weeks out. My story, A Shock to the System, came out a few weeks after said 1 million outlets reported on the situation.
There’s also the controversial herbicide glyphosate being used to treat forests and more in our region. Again, this has been reported on by broader outlets — but we offer an in-depth lens on Truckee/Tahoe impacts.
It can be frustrating, yes (especially for this type-A queen), but I actually don’t mean for it to come off that way. It’s more so an opportunity to educate our readers about how our brains at Moonshine operate. About 80% of the time, we are thinking about what will come out the second Thursday of each month (except January; collective relaxation time for staff), and how our articles will both be as up to date as possible and highly informative.
Does that mean we don’t produce breaking news content? Not at all. We turn out articles on timely information quite often. Most recently, there was the approval of the Village at Palisades development, and the tragic Castle Peak avalanche. In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were constantly updating our readers with daily online updates on the situation. But we only have so many staffers, and as much as I wish otherwise, there are only 24 hours in the day.
To keep up and even expand our ability to cover more and increase publication of those online-exclusive stories, I urge you to consider becoming a Moonshine Ink Member. Like I wrote in a November 2023 Membership update, we want to cover more stories in-depth, but we need help to get there.
