The semi-weekly paper was established as a monthly in April 2003[1] and closed in November 2018.

Dating back to the mid-1990s, the cafe served as a popular meeting place and hangout for Salem's youth culture.

In its later years of operation, the cafe began publishing a newsletter to engage customers in Salem's community and cultural affairs.

Walther decided to start up a publishing operation for an alternative newspaper in town.

[2] Topics covered in past issues include: the stigma of living on welfare; the dangers of pollution and whether recycling helps; Chemeketa Community College's financial struggles; local gay citizens' reactions to the nullification of gay marriages that took place in Multnomah County; local residents' experiences of racism; internment of Japanese, Italian, and German Americans during World War II; the Native American perspective on Thanksgiving; Bush's abuses of power; Noam Chomsky and the Iraq War.