CLAYTON, CA (Aug. 15, 2025) — When word started circulating that The Pioneer would cease operations this month, readers immediately posted memories and compliments on Facebook.

“Tamara Steiner has been a stalwart provider of news to this area for 22 years,” Pleasant Hill Mayor Sue Noack said of her friend’s dedication.
“Her willingness to step up and cover Pleasant Hill when we lost our local coverage was incredible,” she continued.

Longtime ABC7 News evening anchor Dan Ashley, who once called Clayton home, described Tamara as “a dynamo.”

“She eats and sleeps small-town journalism and recognizes the important role it plays in Clayton and in similar communities all around California and the country,” said Ashley.

“The paper covered events and issues vital to the lives of people in the Clayton area. These are stories that might have otherwise fallen through the cracks and gone unreported by the larger papers,” he noted.

[broadstreet zone=”160420″]

Getting the inside track

Steiner knew full well that the newspaper was an advertising business, and local Realtor Kelly McDougall spoke of the relationship she forged with Tamara and Bob Steiner that goes back to 1979 as Morgan Territory neighbors. “Every time I advertised in the newspaper, I had several calls and inquiries on my clients’ properties.”

Calling the Steiners “anchors out here in the country,” McDougall also appreciated the paper’s willingness to cover controversial local issues.

“I’m grateful that she reported on all the touchy stories knowing darn well that she would not make everybody happy. The paper will be deeply missed, but I am so grateful for the time I did have reading it and advertising in it,” McDougall said.

Steiner chuckled at what satisfied her about being in the news business.

“You get to be really nosy and poke your nose into everything,” she said, “but you also get an inside track on things that you don’t get if you are on the outside.”

“People want to see their pictures in the paper. They want to see their dog’s picture in the paper. They want their talent show winners in the paper.”

Why local news is essential

In a changing news environment, Concord Mayor Carlyn Obringer lauded the paper’s local focus.

“The Pioneer filled a critical role in covering local community news and significant milestones as the larger papers cease to cover communities like Concord and focus only on larger cities in the Bay Area,” Obringer said.

The Pioneer always documented community events, “be it a State of the City, a packed City Council meeting, a statue unveiling or a ribbon cutting,” Obringer said, adding: “She is a fixture in the Concord collective memory.”

Julie Pierce, a former Clayton mayor who now calls North Las Vegas home, regards the Steiners as vibrant members of the Clayton community for more than a generation.

“From high school sports to Scouting achievements, to local non-profit events to even-handed reporting on local politics, they were where we all looked for information about what’s happening in town.”

Pierce also showered praise on them for taking over sponsoring and actively running the Clayton Cleans Up event for many years. “The Clayton Christmas Cookie Contest was fun for all and Bob was a wonderful, jolly Santa!” Pierce recalled. “Any group that needed publicity had only to ask and Tamara gave them a shout-out of support in the paper.”

“Though we didn’t always agree on policy issues, we could always discuss with energy and mutual respect,” she said.

“I am sending prayers for positive health outcomes for both of them,” Pierce concluded.

Steiner interviewed Dan Ashley for one of The Clayton Pioneer’s first profiles, and in the early days he contributed a monthly column, “What Really Matters,” which became a staple for his opinions on ABC7’s television broadcast. For him, the final edition of The Pioneer represents “a real loss” for the communities it covered.

“Across the country, communities are losing their hometown papers – they’re either closing up shop or being scooped up by larger operations. There is something so special, so American, in fact, about journalism in small towns just like Clayton,” Ashley said.

Staff writer Bev Britton contributed to this story.