UPDATE 3/4/09: This story was fully funded in less than 24 hours! Thanks to all the contributors, listed here:

http://spot.us/pitches/139

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As part of our ongoing collaboration with the journalism microfunding project Spot.us, we’ve put up a “pitch” for a daily story we think needs to get covered … Can you help us fund this story? Log on to: http://spot.us/pitches/139

Here’s the pitch:

 

Will you miss Stacey’s Bookstore when it’s gone? Do you care that independent bookstores are failing? Here’s your chance to do something.

On Wednesday, March 4, Stacey’s is staging its own sad farewell after 85 years in business in San Francisco. The store generates more than $4 million a year in sales and is dear to thousands of loyal customers, but soaring expenses and declining sales are forcing the shop out of business.

Gone will be three floors of books and magazines, along with smart sales folks. More important, San Francisco will lose an important literary institution, which will follow in the tracks of Cody’s and other bookstores that have failed in recent years.

 

How Will This Reporting Help?

The Public Press (www.public-press.org), San Francisco’s scrappy nonprofit news organization, will send a veteran reporter to cover Stacey’s demise, interviewing employees, book-lovers and others to memorialize the loss of the urban institution. We’ll also seek out author Cara Black, who’ll be on hand to offer the store’s final book reading.

 

Deliverables

This is a one-day news story – a special project – that will be completed by the staff of The Public Press, including a story and photo that may also be used by other media.

 

Qualifications

Who better than nonprofit, noncommercial Public Press to cover a story that will have such a significant impact on the cultural and literary life of San Francisco. Editor Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig will assign a reporter as soon as we have the $100 to pay them.
 
Donate to help get a reporter on this story!
 
 

Michael Stoll is senior editor and co-founder of the San Francisco Public Press. Formerly executive director, he has also been a reporter and freelance writer for local and national outlets, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has taught journalism at two Bay Area universities, and researched media ethics. He was selected as the 2026 medial fellow with the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford.