26 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 22-28, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com INSIDER 2026 CALIFORNIA JOURNALISM AWARDS First Place, Best Newsletter First Place, Breaking News First Place, Investigative Reporting First Place, Column First Place, Enterprise News Story or Series First Place, Immigration Reporting First Place, Agricultural Reporting Monterey County Weekly editorial department (from left to right): Daniel Dreifuss, Katie Rodriguez, Dave Faries, Aric Sleeper, Royvi Hernandez, Sloan Campi, Pam Marino, Chrissa Olson, Erik Chalhoub, Agata Pope¸da, Celia Jiménez, (seated): Sara Rubin. Not pictured: Joseph Treviño. Second Place, General Excellence Second Place, Public Service Journalism Second Place, Coverage of Business/Economy Second Place, Food Writing/Reporting Second Place, Photo Essay The stories themselves were impactful, too, from spotlighting beloved local businesses to voting guidance to event attendance. While it can be hard to measure those impacts, we are always happy to receive anecdotal reports of these impacts. The winners in the Readers’ Poll are rightly proud of the recognition they received, and some readers have already reported going to check out the new-to-them Best Of winners. A cover story published in April that brought the widespread use of Flock cameras to the attention of the general public, and helped spur local advocacy groups to take action. That ultimately contributed to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors canceling a 10-year contract with the company just six months later. In another example on an individual but no less important scale, Sally from Pacific Grove wrote on Oct. 15 in response to a newsletter intro about voting: “Your lede literally made me just now get out of my very comfy chair, go over to the kitchen counter, and stack my ballot materials front and center. Thank you! Journalism at its very core…” Similarly unsolicited feedback came in from Denise in Salinas who wrote, “To the Hot Picks staff: Thank you so very much for your coverage of the First Mayor’s House of Salinas. On our open house Saturday, following your article, our visitor count tripled. Most people said they attended for the first time because they saw your Hot Picks article. So many visitors shared with us that they never knew about this site in the historic center of Salinas at Heritage Park. Heritage tourism is alive and well in Salinas with your help.” These impacts, and many, many more are a result of the financial contributions from Weekly Insiders—donors who demonstrate that they value local and independent journalism by making monthly contributions to support our work. To find out how to join them, see the sign-up form on p. 28. FIRST PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2024 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS • FIRST PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2025 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS • SECOND PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2026 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS • 2026 Publisher of the Year MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY continued from pg. 25 SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2026 MONTEREYCOUNTYNOW.COM LOCAL & INDEPENDENT A CUP OF CONFIDENCE 8 | BUSY BALLOTS 12 | IT’S ALL GREEK 31 | THE SPIN ON YAMAGUCHI 36 Salinas Valley growers are still feeling the fallout of a cyclospora outbreak in iceberg lettuce this summer. p. 20 By Katie Rodriguez OH, SH*T Ariel Mar “Fremont Peak” Debbie Tanimura “Lilialanaikawai” Vol. 3 SEPTEMBER 12-13 & 19-20, 2026 SAT. & SUN. 11 AM - 5 PM Presented by EXPERIENCE ARTISTS OF MONTEREY COUNTY during this Free, Self-Guided Tour C M Y CM MY CY CMY K OSAT Magazine Guide Cover 2026 cmyk6a.pdf 1 6/11/2026 4:57:00 PM open-studios-guide_2026.indd 1 7/16/26 3:18 PM The official Open Studios Art Tour guide is inside
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