February 2026 Newsletter
Welcome to our February newsletter! We have a lot going on this month so let’s get right to it. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you have any feedback by emailing [email protected].
-—Randy Lovely, CVJF President
Last call for tickets to the Media Hall of Fame
Keynote speaker Tonya Mosley and this year’s honorees.
Time is running out to get tickets to this year’s Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Tuesday, Februrary 24. The banquet at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage will celebrate the careers of five individuals who made lasting impacts on media in Coachella Valley.
Now is the time to buy! The deadline to purchase tickets is Wednesday, February 18. Click here for details.
Tonya Mosley, co-host of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” will deliver the keynote address.
The 2026 Media Hall of Fame honorees are:
Jimmy Boegle, founding editor and publisher of the Coachella Valley Independent
Larry Bohannan, veteran golf writer, The Desert Sun
Lina Robles, co-host of the valley’s top morning radio show, El Show del Greñas
Ric and Rozene Supple (posthumously), pioneering radio station owners and philanthropists
You can read their profiles on our website here.
Find out who will win Journalist of the Year and Rising Star awards
In addition to inducting five new people into the Media Hall of Fame, we will unveil the 2026 Journalist of the Year and Rising Star award winners at the Omni on February 24.
Journalist of the Year nominees are:
Tom Coulter, The Desert Sun
Peter Daut, KESQ
Kevin Fitzgerald, Coachella Valley Independent
Thalia Hayden, NBC Palm Springs
Ema Sasic, The Desert Sun
The Journalist of the Year award recognizes a professional journalist who has demonstrated excellence, high ethical standards, and significant community impact through their reporting in 2025.
Rising Star nominees are:
Luis Avila, KESQ
Xochilt Diaz, El Informador del Valle
Shay Lawson, KESQ
Antonio Marquez, Univision
The Rising Star award honors an early-career journalist—under age 30 or with fewer than five years in the industry—whose work in 2025 showed exceptional promise and a strong commitment to telling the valley’s story.
Help fund summer internships for local newsrooms through our CV Giving Day campaign
Every year, we designate funds from our CV Giving Day campaign for summer internships in local newsrooms. Internships give new journalists the valuable experience they need to launch professional careers. In the past, CVJF supporters contributed enough to help us win additional funds from Giving Day organizers.
CV Giving Day is March 3, but early giving launched the first week in February. We hope you’ll support this annual internship drive. To do so, please go to Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation | CV Giving Day before March 3 and make a donation. To see the interns from previous years, go here. We appreciate your help.
Julie Makinen, CVJF Secretary/Treasurer
CVJF’s Julie Makinen talks ‘Life After News’
Julie Makinen is primarily known as a former executive editor of The Desert Sun. Before that, however, she worked at the Los Angeles Times and the International New York Times. Read her full bio here.
Makinen, CVJF’s secretary/treasurer, recently sat down with Jason Ball, host of the “Life After News” podcast, to discuss her career in journalism, the state of the industry, and her work to sustain local journalism. Listen here.
Publishers of the Palm Springs and Indio Posts expand coverage to Palm Desert
Nearly a year ago, CVJF launched a fundraising campaign to help the fledgling Indio Post cover its start-up costs. That campaign is still underway with CVJF matching all contributions up to $12,000. (Donate here) |
Recently, the publication’s founding publisher and editor, Mark Talkington and Kendall Balchan, respectively, expanded their coverage to a third Valley city. Say hello to The Palm Desert Post. “We knew Palm Desert was newsy,” Talkington said. “Palm Desert has the next most similar demographic to what we look for before we expand.” |
The pair has been producing The Palm Springs Post since 2021. Talkington said the focus is on hyper-local civic news. “We just relentlessly cover these city halls. People are informed early and often, and public officials know somebody is watching them,” he said. |
The Indio Post and The Palm Desert Post are each delivered to readers via email weekly. The Palm Springs Post is sent five days a week. A fourth newsletter, the CV Reporter, offers readers a weekly roundup of news across the Valley. |
All the publications are free, and Talkington acknowledges that so far only The Palm Springs Post is making money. Contributions to help the expansion efforts are welcomed – and appreciated! |
Good news from the California Digital Newspaper Collective
Last April, state funding for the California Digital Newspaper Collective that provides free access to more than 21 million pages of California newspapers dating back to 1846 had been cut. The staff was laid off. But, as the Coachella Valley Independent recently reported, this online resource to history is making a comeback. Renewed state funding and individual donations have been credited for the turnaround.
California Civic Media Fund
Report: State is shortchanging California Civic Media Fund
The state of California’s pledge with Google to provide $175 million to local newsrooms over a five-year period appears to be collapsing, according to a CalMatters report. Citing budget constraints, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office placed a meager $10 million into the California Civic Media Fund in the current fiscal year and has not committed to future payments. Google made $4.7 billion from news sites in 2018.