About Us

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 we focus 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 in 2025, and we've now launched The Palm Desert Post 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 Valley Voice Media publications have 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 Desert 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.

Our team

Mark Talkington, Founder and Publisher

Mark, who first moved to the Coachella Valley in 1994, is the founder and publisher of Valley Voice Media, which publishes The Palm Desert Post, The Palm Springs Post, and The Indio Post. After a long career in newspapers (including The Desert Sun) and major news websites such as ESPN.com and MSN.com, he launched the Palm Springs Post in 2021, looking to fill gaps left behind as legacy media retreated. He left Microsoft in 2024 to focus on expanding local news options in the valley and working on Satchel, his AI startup for the news business.

Kendall Balchan, Founder and Editor

Kendall was born and raised in the Coachella Valley and brings deep local knowledge and context to every story. Before joining Valley Voice Media, she spent three years as a producer and investigative reporter at NBC Palm Springs. In 2024, she was honored as one of the rising stars of local news by the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation.