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This entry refers to a departed business — a business that has closed or left town. Information here is mostly for historical reference. |
| Location |
| 831 Bay Avenue, Suite 1C, Capitola, CA 95010-2105 |
| Publication dates |
| Mid-county edition every two weeks. San Lorenzo Valley edition monthly. |
| Phone |
| (831) 476-0777 |
| Fax |
| (831) 476-5023 |
| Website |
| http://www.mcpost.com |
| Circulation |
| Mid-Count 26,000. Valley 16,000 |
| Life span |
| 1989-2012 |
The Mid-County Post was a bi-weekly community newspaper distributed free and by subscription, along with its separate monthly Valley Post edition. The publishers of The Post, also published the Great Exchange (a classified ad shopping tabloid) that was started in 1978. The original The Great Exchange was started by John Bryant, Massey Bambara and Kate Pudenz (John and Massey were UCSC graduates). The original partnership dissolved in the early '80s and John's mom Ann Smith stepped into help her son. Mary Bryant bought John out of the business in 1986. She expanded the business through out the next two decades.
The Post was first published in 1989 after several years of specially publications aimed at the Mid-County market. The emphasis was on local news, with special focus on politics, health care, public and higher education, government and criminal justice matters. The publication also featured local history articles and a calendar of events, with theater/event reviews.
Most circulation was directly mailed to homes in Mid-County (likewise the Valley edition was directly mailed to homes in Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley) with stacks of issues left at friendly businesses. The Great Exchange was published weekly and distributed through stores, libraries and news racks. The Great Exchange was one of the first publications to be posted online in Santa Cruz County in 1996.
In the June 2012 edition, publisher and editor Mary Bryant announced the community newspapers would no longer be published. By then, the Great Exchange had been incorporated into the Post format (starting in 2010) to save costs. Like many publications big and small of its era, the internet had siphoned revenues away and print publications struggled to find formats to reach readers more frequently turning to the internet for news while maintaining sufficient revenues to publish quality, well-researched content.
