Christie Keith is Part of CoastViews Magazine Legacy
by Dyane Hendricks
Christie Keith judging a fun match for the Northern California Deerhound Club. Photo courtesy of Christie Keith.
July 1, 2010 — Christie Keith’s career as a journalist took some twists and turns along a path through beauty school, Pescadero farming and AIDS activism. She also played a major role the development of Coastviews Magazine.
Keith was living in Pescadero with her mother in 1991 when publisher Gwen O’Neill was getting the fledging Views from the South Coast off the ground. O’Neill contacted Keith to interview her and write about Keith’s interest in Scottish deerhounds. After speaking with Keith, O’Neill asked her to write an article about pets. Keith obliged with a story about greyhound rescue.
The article was well received, and Keith began writing a monthly column — and soon began expanding her South Coast coverage to include environmental issues. She had strong opinions about Views from the South Coast, Keith said. Opinions that she was not afraid to share with O’Neill, who eagerly incorporated the changes, which included the glossy cover and the various sections. She took over editing duties, giving articles a professional feel while assisting the promising writers who contributed to the young publication. Simultaneously, she started writing columns about pets and AIDS for AOL.
Living in Pescadero and raising dogs was part of a dream for Keith, who can trace her San Francisco roots back four generations. While growing up in San Francisco, Keith’s brother convinced their parents to adopt a Scottish deerhound; that began her lifelong love affair with the breed. She described the deerhound as a very catlike and loving breed that will “rest his chin on your knee and gaze into your eyes like you’re the most wonderful person on the planet.”
Keith said that like many students in the 1970s she was influenced by Watergate. She attended Northwestern University, but upon graduation she decided to take a different route and enrolled in beauty school. When she graduated from that school, she began her career in the music industry styling hair for music videos.
She returned to San Francisco after college and watched a lot of her friends die of AIDS, never having fulfilled their dreams. She thought about that and decided that she would fulfill her own dream of living in the country, raising dogs and writing. She packed up home and with her mother headed to the San Mateo County south coast. “Moving to Pescadero was running from my grief, but it was also running towards something,” she said.
As much as Keith and her mother enjoyed South Coast life, they eventually decided that they would like more space and “a little less involvement in the community, as rotten as that sounds,” she said. She found property in Sonoma. Keith continued her relationship with CoastViews but found that the distance precluded doing the job that she wanted to do as an editor, and so she stepped down.
When her mother’s health declined, Keith decided to move back to San Francisco — but she has been able to keep her dogs with her. She currently shares her home with Kyrie, a borzoi, and Rawley, a Scottish deerhound.
Over the years, Keith has been involved with numerous publications having to do with pet care — as a writer, editor and more. Among other things, she is currently the social media editor for PetConnection.com and the online pet-care columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.com. Her pet columns focus on issues surrounding animals and owners, including the human-animal bond, food safety and veterinary medicine.
Keith sees the future of journalism in online posts and blogs. “Blogging is wonderful because it can be so many different things,” she said. “Some of the best things I’ve written have been so long.” One 4,000-word article written some time ago now has over 300 comments.
“Publishing as we know it is dying — and what will rise from the ashes, I don’t know,” she said. Regarding print media, Keith says, “For what my crystal ball is worth, I believe it will survive in some form.” Regional publications like Coastviews Magazine are uniquely positioned to survive because locals want to read about their community, and tourists want to learn about the community.
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