Mark Conley

Follow Mark Conley on: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Mark joins Lookout after 14 years at the Mercury News and Bay Area News Group, where he served as Deputy Sports Editor on a staff that covered three World Series, three Super Bowls, five NBA Finals, a Stanley Cup Final, six Olympic Games and three U.S. Opens over that span. He led enterprise coverage and special projects, and guided the Merc’s premium NFL and MLB magazines to five straight years of top APSE honors.Mark chaired a digital innovation committee and partook in the Table Stakes program that led to the newsroom’s establishment of a digital subscription team and a product development approach to coverage. He helped build brands around Pac-12 and high schools coverage via robust newsletters, social engagement, promotional deals and targeted audience content. Both coverage areas became top digital subscription drivers in the sports department — and the newsroom as a whole.Mark has lived in Santa Cruz County — Westside, Eastside, Midtown and now Capitola — for more than 20 years and has a passion for seeing journalism restored in the place he lives and loves.“This county is such a special place, and it’s as much about the people who choose to live here as the magical geography,” he says. “I’m looking forward to helping tell the stories of Santa Cruz County.”
Posted inPolitics & Policy

Time for a ‘laser beam’ of action: Fred Keeley says he hopes to move Santa Cruz’s biggest issues forward

by Mark Conley

One of two candidates to lead the city of Santa Cruz into its district-elections future as mayor, Fred Keeley, a noted consensus-builder as both state Assembly leader and as an involved Santa Cruz County changemaker, is looking to speed up the way things get done around here on important issues like homelessness and affordable housing.

Posted inGuides

Will pickleball take over the planet? We investigate this ‘fastest-growing sport’; laughter, trash talk ensue

by Mark Conley

Everyone seems to be talking about this little brother of tennis, cousin of pingpong and distant relative of badminton, squash and something in the U.K. called padel (Google it). Like you, perhaps, we wondered what the big deal was. So we decided to do the heavy investigative journalism for you. Spoiler alert: Pickleball is easy and addictive. If you try it, you will like it and you will want more. Here’s a guide to discovering your inner pickleballer right here in beautiful, pickleball-weather-friendly Santa Cruz County.

Posted inCoast Life

‘What would we do without these people?’ A Q&A with ‘furious’ farmworker advocate Ann Lopez

by Mark Conley

When she turned from biologist to sociologist and human rights advocate 25 years ago, Ann Lopez realized how dire the situation was for humans born into a caste system that put them on a path toward what she considers to be agrarian slavery. COVID, climate change and affordability have worked against change, but that hasn’t slowed her fight for justice.

Posted inCoast Life

‘Like a family’: Sí Se Puede, an addiction recovery beacon in Watsonville, looks to meet expanding need

by Mark Conley

For three decades, a single-story house — the state’s first bilingual recovery program of its kind — that sits on a quiet street in the middle of Watsonville has helped men heal their addictions. Many have gone on to successful lives and careers; others couldn’t outrun their demons. But those who have dedicated their lives to creating a brotherhood of recovery at the Sí Se Puede residential treatment program realize they are making a significant difference for the Latino population of South County.

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