In a letter to readers addressing the recent closure of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, East Bay Express president Jay Youngdahl says “our publication is currently healthier than it has been for more than a decade.”

So, what does being “healthy” mean? It means that we are currently a sustainable enterprise that pays its bills, puts out a great news product, and is debt-free. And for a newspaper to be sustainable these days — it’s a beautiful thing. We have enough money to pay our nearly twenty employees and others associated with our paper a living wage (although we wish we could pay them much more than we do). We provide benefits and medical insurance. We try to provide our employees with groovy options such as morning yoga classes every so often — but Facebook headquarters we are not … Thinking differently about ourselves is also a secret to our success. We believe that we have to be a vital part of the community to survive.