Palisadian Post Newspaper to Cease Publication After 97 Years

Pacific Palisades, Calif. - On Wednesday, the Palisadian Post, the community's newspaper of record since 1928, announced it will publish its final edition later this month, bringing to a close nearly a century of chronicling life in the tight-knit coastal enclave between Santa Monica and Malibu.

In a heartfelt front-page letter to readers titled "A Farewell, With Gratitude," publisher Alan Smolinisky and editor Bill Bruns revealed that the devastating effects of the Palisades Fire (November 2024) and the long-term shift away from print advertising had made continuing the paper impossible.

"We lost our advertisers in the fire," the letter read. "Worse, we lost too many of our readers. I can't believe that I'm saying it, but you can't print a newspaper that nobody reads."

The Palisades Fire, which destroyed or heavily damaged more than 1,200 structures and claimed at least six lives, struck at the heart of the weekly newspaper's economic foundation. Dozens of the Post's longest-running advertisers-local restaurants, real estate offices, boutiques, and professional services-were reduced to ash or left uninhabitable. Many of those businesses have not reopened, and those that have are struggling to rebuild.

Compounding the blow, the fire displaced thousands of residents, scattering the Post's core readership across temporary housing in Santa Monica, Brentwood, and beyond. Circulation, already under pressure from digital migration, plummeted further as mailboxes sat empty and familiar doorsteps vanished.

"It's not just a business closing," said Smolinisky, who with his family has owned the paper since 2007. "It's the end of a civic glue. For 97 years this paper showed up every Thursday with school honor rolls, planning commission notices, Little League scores, and obituaries. When people wanted to know what was actually happening in Pacific Palisades, they picked up the Post."

Founded in 1928 by the father-and-son team of Bill and Tom Clark, the Palisadian Post survived the Great Depression, World War II paper rationing, multiple ownership changes, and the rise of the internet. At its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, the tabloid-format weekly printed upward of 12,000 copies distributed free to every home and business from Topanga to the beach.

Longtime residents reacted with shock and sadness to Wednesday's announcement.

"I found out my neighbors had a new baby because of the Post. I found out when someone died because of the Post," said Maryam Zar, who has lived in the Alphabet Streets since 1974. "It was the town square before we had Instagram."

The Post's archives-yellowing clippings stored in file cabinets at its former Sunset Boulevard office-contain a vivid chronicle of the community: the battle to stop freeway construction through Temescal Canyon in the 1960s, the incorporation fights, the 1984 Olympic archery range at the high school fields, and the slow transformation of the Village from sleepy mom-and-pop stores to upscale boutiques.

Staff members, some of whom have worked at the paper for decades, are still determining the fate of those archives and the iconic neon "Palisadian-Post" sign that has glowed above the Village Books & Stationers since the 1950s.

The final edition is scheduled for December 26, 2025. In a nod to tradition, it will be printed on newsprint and delivered by the same carriers who have walked Palisades routes for generations.

"We're going to fill it with as many memories as we can fit," Bruns said. "And then we'll turn off the presses for the last time."

For a community still reeling from fire and loss, the shuttering of its newspaper feels like one more irreplaceable piece of home slipping away.