Marin Snapshot: West Marin newspaper editor juggles fishbowl life

Tess Elliott, editor of the Point Reyes Light, and her partner, David Briggs, the paper's photographer and graphic designer, work in their office. They are buying the West Marin Citizen newspaper. (Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal

Tess Elliott, editor of the Point Reyes Light, and her son Elliot. (Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal

Tess Elliott, the 34-year-old editor of the Point Reyes Light, may be the only rural journalist in the country with a bachelor’s degree in writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

The school, founded in 1974 by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, is part of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Elliott also has a minor in Tibetan language from Naropa and once considered becoming a Buddhist translator.

She is in the final stages of negotiating a buyout of the West Marin Citizen, a rival weekly. The deal will end a bitter schism in the small, rural community that almost put both papers out of business.

Elliott worked as an innkeeper and a house painter before being hired as an editor at the Light in 2007. She lives in Inverness with her life partner and newsroom colleague, David Briggs, the Light’s photographer and graphic designer. They have a 4-year-old son, Elliott Briggs, and are expecting a second child, a daughter.

Q: How did you come to live in West Marin?

A: I took a couple of road trips here from Colorado and fell in love with the place. Back then it was very quiet here. There were fewer people. In the evening, Point Reyes Station was empty. And the cows were still at the Giacomini Dairy, so it smelled like you were on a dairy ranch when you were in town. There was one day driving up Tomales Bay when I felt like I could hear my future children speaking to me. I had a very strong calling to come here.

Q: You’ve just gone through a nasty controversy over the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. issue. How has it been for you as a journalist in a small rural community where people are intensely engaged in local causes and politics?

A: It’s a very difficult place to practice journalism. Not just from my point of view, but watching many people come here and work for the paper, people who have worked in other places. Local people are passionate about causes, and they have time on their hands to really get involved in issues, to read the paper and feel strongly about it. You get a lot of reaction. Some of it is positive, but I get the feeling that some people don’t grasp the point of journalism, so they blame the messenger.

Q: With the buyout of the Citizen, does it seem you’re entering a time of peace and reconciliation in West Marin?

A: It feels like a time to breathe and to recognize that most people have common values and a common vision for this place. We all want to be good stewards of the land and to keep it relatively undeveloped. There are small conflicts and disagreements, but there is a lot of common ground, more common ground than disagreement. So maybe there will be some time of peace.

Q: How do you cope, personally, living in a small community where everyone knows everyone’s business, especially in a high-profile job like yours?

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A: It truly is a very small place. If you choose to get your mail, you may run into five people at the post office that you have a disagreement with. So it’s intense just going out. You’re put on the spot. I think on some level it’s like living in a fishbowl. All eyes are on you all the time. Everyone wants to know your business. You can’t utter a word without a response. It’s a funny place to be. It takes a lot of courage to live here. I’ve talked to other people who are in roles similar to mine and on some level they cope by hiding out. I see them and it looks to me like they’re really comfortable here and in the mix of things, but they tell me they feel on the fringe, like they have to hide out at home. We’re all kind of in that boat.

Q: And yet with the buyout, you must see yourself continuing in your role as editor of the Light for some time to come.

A: I really feel this is home for me. It’s a deep connection. I feel this is a good place to raise my kids. For Elliott, my 4-year-old son, all of West Marin feels like home to him. It feels like such a nurturing place. That’s very special.