Gannett, the parent company of The Desert Sun, has implemented another round of cost-cutting at newspapers across the country, offering buyouts to many employees, including Mr. Franco. While we certainly wish Mr. Franco well and thank him for his service, this will leave The Desert Sun without an Opinion editor as the position has been slated for elimination.

What this means to us is that The Desert Sun’s Opinion page — that includes witty cartoons that are designed to teach, letters to the editor from an engaged public, and the all-important Valley Voice column — will vanish from publication unless something is done locally to preserve what is the most important part of any local newspaper for addressing items of local interest.

About a month ago, I was approached to become a founding member of a nonprofit organization called the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation. The mission of this nonprofit is to solicit participation from the people of the Coachella Valley to support quality journalism in a variety of mediums — print and online for starters, but perhaps also broadcast and audio down the road as well.

We didn’t know our first project would be to save the Opinion pages of The Desert Sun, but the need has arisen and we are eager to step up to the task.

The printing press for The Desert Sun was closed down in September and print operations moved to Phoenix. Now, the newspaper’s building is for sale. This is not just happening in Palm Springs. In Stockton, where Gannett owns the hometown newspaper called The Record, the building is up for sale as well, and one potential buyer is a local government agency that is interested in converting the property into a homeless shelter.  The divestment of assets and the centralization of where news is aggregated for publication has reached a fever pitch across the country, and the business model for newspapers has been diminished by online publishing.

Since Thomas Paine started a small paper called “Common Sense” to advocate for the independent United States of America from Great Britain, local opinion pages have provided a forum to discuss local issues. The opinion pages of newspapers are operated editorially independent from the rest of the operation.

The Desert Sun has a seven-member editorial board, and a majority of these members are not employees of the newspaper, but community members. They hail from a diversity of backgrounds and live in different cities throughout the valley. They meet weekly to consider important issues from our community, talk with local people, and formulate opinion pieces that speak to the critical matters facing all of us, pointing out problems, but also suggesting solutions.

That said, The Desert Sun Opinion pages are much more than that. The unique function of the Opinion page is to provide a forum where local people can submit opinions for publication on local issues, and the opinions published in the pages of The Desert Sun often run counter to the opinions of the newspaper’s editorial board. That dialogue — civil and transparent — is part of the bedrock of our republic.

The Desert Sun’s Opinion page has been invaluable to the growth, prosperity and honest dialogue of the Coachella Valley since 1927 when the population of the valley was a small fraction of what it is today.  Through two world wars and the emergence of the Coachella Valley as a significant tourism destination, The Desert Sun’s Opinion page has guided us on all things of local importance.

Sustaining a professional, full-time Opinion editor for The Desert Sun in 2021 will cost approximately $60,000. We are starting today to raise these funds, and we ask you to join us with a tax-deductible contribution, large or small.

Please join the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation as we seek to keep our opinion pages from dying in darkness. To find out how you can help, please visit our website at cvjf.org or email us at info@cvjf.org. Together, we can sustain this vibrant forum.

FOOTNOTE: Right after this article was published we are told that the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation has received an astonishing response from the citizens and Corporations of Coachella Valley in support of the return of the “Opinion Editor”  section to the DESERT SUN newspaper.