About

The Palm Springs Post is an independent news outlet dedicated to serving the community of Palm Springs — and only Palm Springs — with 100% original news reporting.

We are a small but mighty two-person operation, owned and operated by your neighbors – Mark Talkington and Kendall Balchan – who saw gaps in the city’s news coverage and believed the community deserved better.

Our Mission

In an era when local newspapers are disappearing and national news dominates our feeds, someone needs to be in the room when decisions about your neighborhood are being made.

That’s why The Palm Springs Post focuses relentlessly on municipal affairs — the Planning Commission meetings that run past 10 p.m., the budget documents that span hundreds of pages, the staff reports that determine whether your street gets repaved or your property taxes increase.

Why Municipal Coverage Matters

The stories that affect your daily life the most rarely make headlines. They happen in council chambers on Thursday afternoons. They’re buried in consent calendar items. They’re discussed in technical language that most people don’t have time to decode.

We launched The Palm Springs Post in 2021 and The Indio Post and The Palm Desert Post in 2025 because legacy media has stopped showing up to these meetings. And when nobody’s watching, residents stop knowing:

• Where new developments are planned for our neighborhoods
  
• How our tax dollars are actually being spent
  
• Which infrastructure projects are being delayed or canceled
  
• What deals are being negotiated behind closed doors
  
• Whether officials are keeping the promises they made during elections

What We Do

This isn’t sexy journalism. There are no viral moments. City budget discussions don’t trend on social media. But this is the journalism that matters most to homeowners, small business owners, and longtime residents who want to understand how their city actually works.

We read the 200-page staff reports so you don’t have to. We sit through four-hour meetings so you can spend 90 seconds understanding what happened. We track the commitments made in January and check whether they materialized by December.

Our Commitment to Access

The Palm Springs Post has no paywall. It is our belief that vital information needs to be available free of charge for the people impacted to read. We are supported entirely by readers like you who believe local accountability journalism matters.

Why This Matters

When local accountability journalism disappears, things happen in the dark. Decisions get made without scrutiny. Public input becomes an afterthought. And by the time residents realize what’s changed in their community, it’s already done.

Palm Springs deserves better. You deserve to know what’s happening in your city before it affects your property value, your commute, your water bill, or your quality of life.

That’s why we cover municipal affairs. That’s why it matters. And that’s why we’ll keep showing up—one City Council meeting, one Planning Commission hearing, one budget report at a time.

Because someone has to be watching.

Support Local Journalism

The Palm Springs Post is made possible by readers who believe in independent, local news. Learn how you can support our work.

Contact Us

Have a tip? A question? A story idea? Get in touch.

Staff

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Palm Springs Post acknowledges the Cahuilla People as the original stewards of the land on which The Palm Springs Post now sits.  We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with the indigenous people in this place.  We pay our respect to the Cahuilla People past, present and emerging who have been here since time immemorial.

OUR USE OF AI

The Palm Springs Post utilizes a tool called Satchel, developed in part by our founder and launched as a startup in early 2024. Satchel uses generative AI technology to do a number of things such as helping to summarize complex documents — including staff reports and legal briefs — rewriting press releases, and suggesting headlines and edits for our stories. It can also listen to and transcribe government meetings and write basic news stories about what transpired. When we use Satchel, the final output is always fact-checked and edited by a member of The Post’s staff. This report, authored by our founder, provides an in-depth analysis of the risks and benefits of AI-assisted reporting that we consider when utilizing this technology.

MEMBERSHIPS

The Palm Springs Post is a member of LION (Local Independent Online News Publishers), the Indiegraf network of independent publishers, CalMatters, Online News Association (ONA), and other organizations working to promote local ownership of news outlets. Post staff members are also part of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and adhere to that organization’s guidelines.

CORRECTIONS

The Post and its editorial staff adhere to the code of ethics of the SPJ. How we deal with errors and omissions in our reporting is important to maintaining our integrity and the trust of readers and sources. When The Post publishes an error, we will acknowledge it and take appropriate steps to correct it as quickly as possible, both online and on our social media platforms. Readers who wish to alert us to errors and omissions can email us at editor@thepalmspringspost.com

NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY

The Palm Springs Post and its parent company, Valley Voice Media, does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.

REACH US

The Palm Springs Post mailing address is:
P.O. Box 596
Palm Springs, CA 92263

Our business phone/text is: 760-968-0081