ABOUT


Will Carruthers is an award-winning reporter and editor based in California. From 2019 through 2023, he served as news editor of the North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun, two beloved alternative weekly newspapers known for their investigative reporting. His journalism career started in San Francisco, where he studied at San Francisco State University and wrote about the city’s southern neighborhoods for the Ingleside-Excelsior Light newspaper and Hoodline, a hyper-local news site.

Will has written about the gentrification of San Francisco’s Broad-Randolf corridor, environmental pollution in the North Bay, PG&E’s political influence efforts, and conflicts of interest held by the owners of a local newspaper chain. In 2020, his work with Peter Byrne won a James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ NorCal Chapter.

Will’s work has been featured by Project Censored, Politico’s California Playbook and IRE’s Local Matters weekly newsletter.

He is available for freelance assignments. You can reach him at wrcarruthers (at) gmail.com.

WORK


NEWS:

Sonoma County Quarry Faces $8.6 Million Water Board Fine | North Bay Bohemian

In California, Climate Change Fuels Disasters—and a Push For More Farmworker Protections | Modern Farmer

Santa Rosa Student Journalists Cover Campus Safety Protests, Gun Scares | North Bay Bohemian

Amazon Labor Union Leader Chris Smalls Tours Sonoma County | North Bay Bohemian

Petaluma Copperfield’s Books Workers Launch Union Effort | North Bay Bohemian

FEATURES:

Nice Ice — Snoopy’s Senior Hockey Tournament Draws a Friendly Crowd | North Bay Bohemian

Subjective Research — Sebastopol Artists Showcase a ‘Mega Toad’ in a Rabbit Hole | North Bay Bohemian

At 92, San Francisco’s Last Abstract Expressionist Keeps Painting | Hoodline

INVESTIGATIONS:

Freight Railroaded — Behind the Scenes of SMART’s Freight Takeover | North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun

Train Lines — How Two Press Democrat Owners Finessed a Petaluma Real Estate Deal | North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun

Cream and Punishment — Tracking a Dairy Man’s History of Code Violations | North Bay Bohemian

Charity Case — Investigating PG&E-funded Rebuild North Bay Foundation | with Peter ByrneNorth Bay Bohemian

Juiced — PG&E Poured $2 million Into the Rebuild North Bay Foundation as the Utility Ramped up Its Political Machine After 2017 Wildfires | North Bay Bohemian

AWARDS


2021

California Journalism Awards — Second Place in the Investigative Reporting category

California Journalism Awards — Second Place in the Agricultural Reporting category

2020 (with Chelsea Kurnick)

California Journalism Awards — First Place for Coverage of Protests and Racial Justice

2019 (with Peter Byrne)

Society of Journalists Northern California’s James Madison Freedom of Information Award

California Journalism Awards — First Place in the Investigative Reporting category

San Francisco Press Club — First Place in the Non-Daily Investigative Reporting category