New Zine Just Dropped

We're excited to announce the release of our newest Hayward Herald Zine! Printed by union printers in Hayward, the Spring '26 Zine is our latest effort to bring the community local news they won't find anywhere else. It contains the most important news stories from the last three months, local art, local photography, and even a book review!

Copies are available at some of our favorite retailers: Books on B and Down By The Bay Nursery. Or, if you prefer to order direct from us, we have copies for sale in our new Store! Copies are $5 each and every penny will support our mission to bring you local news, politics, business, art, and more from around Hayward.

Our cover features a new piece of artwork from local artist Louis "Big Lou" Jiminez. The piece, titled High School Spirit, is a love letter to local schools from across the city. Whether you grew up a Farmer, a Monarch, a Lancer, or even a Sunset Falcon, this piece drips with local pride. Big Lou is perhaps best known for his breakout piece, Hayward Nostalgic, which features multiple signs from favorite businesses, past and present.

Share Your Events With Our Community

Did you know the Hayward Herald has a Local Events calendar? For a nominal fee, you can advertise your upcoming Hayward community event on our calendar and reach thousands of unique viewers! Posting an event on the calendar is just $5, and your listing will be visible exclusively on our website. Simply submit an Events Form to get on our calendar and start connecting with the community!

New Membership Perks Available

If you like the work we do and want to support us financially, we'd love for you to join us as a member. Members get access to exclusive perks—some of which you won't be able to get any other way. We have multiple tiers available and recently made some changes we wanted to share.

1. Hometown ($5/month) - You get access to the comments section of the website, plus a complimentary Zine for every issue.
2. Townie ($10/month) - You get everything above, plus an exclusive Hayward Herald pin (see above).
3. Haywardeño ($20/month) - For those with really deep roots, you get everything above plus an free piece of Hayward Herald merchandise (we'll be reaching out soon to ask what you, our readers, would like to see most!)

And for those who are already members, we definitely haven't forgotten you. We'll be in touch to get you the new perks, don't worry.

We appreciate every one of you, including those who are free subscribers. We wouldn't keep doing this if people weren't interested in reading it. But if you could do us a favor and share articles you enjoy with your friends and neighbors, it'd be a huge help.

Lend Us A Hand

Making these zines is a labor of love from volunteers. We write, design, and photograph everything ourselves which is a lot of work. But at the same time, we also know we may not be the best at it. Nobody is the best at everything, so we wanted to ask our readers for some help.

We highlighted local photography from Downtown Hayward to show some of the many faces of the place we call home. Collin took those photos, but even his wife says he needs photography lessons*. We'd love to highlight some of the great photography in our community—but we need your help to show it off.

If you want to submit photographs of Hayward to be featured in future zines, or even our online news stories, please check out our Photo Submissions form. We'd love to share your work with the hundreds of people who read the Hayward Herald.

We also know that Hayward has a robust and vibrant artistic community. We'd love to share your art with our readers. If you're a local artist who would like to include your work in the next Hayward Herald Zine, let's talk! Email us at haywardherald@protonmail.com and we can get the conversation going.

We'll be back on Thursday with more news from around Hayward. But if you're new here, check out some stories below. And until then, we'll see you around town.

*Editor's Note: I'm trying my best here!