Berkeley Dog Lovers’ Newsletter Bark Also Comes With Bite

Time was when the only thought given to canines in Berkeley was about how to bring the running dogs of U.S. imperialism to heel.

Times have changed in the bastion of anti-establishment activism.

These days, dogs are getting a lot of attention in Berkeley--not least in the pages of the Bark, an erstwhile newsletter for dog lovers that is on the verge of going national as a tabloid newspaper.

Bark editor Claudia Kawczynska and creative director Cameron Woo describe Bark as a hip alternative to glossy mainstream magazines such as Dog Fancy and Dog World that dominate the market for people who are partial to pooches.

“People who like our publication are not glossy people,” said Woo, a designer at Autodesk Software who publishes Bark with Kawczynska, a former public policy analyst. “We’re talking to people who have mutts, and who look at dogs as companions, not as objects.”

Woo and Kawczynska produce Bark out of the Berkeley house they share with their dogs, Nellie, a half beagle and half border collie, and Callie, a German shepherd.

True to Berkeley’s activist tradition, the Bark began when a grass-roots group of dog lovers beseeched City Hall to set aside part of Berkeley’s bayside Cesar Chavez Park for dogs to slip their leashes and run free.

That cause gave birth to Bark last year. Originally an eight-page newsletter, “It was a medium to get the word out,” Kawczynska recalls. “We wanted to get the attention of policy makers.”

The quest for off-leash freedom continues, unresolved. Meanwhile, Bark has grown like a frisky, hungry puppy.

Now a quarterly, Bark plans to go bimonthly with its next issue, due in mid-July. It is also morphing from a local venture into one that plans to ship copies around the country, also beginning with the next issue. Its eight pages are surging to 28. The press run is doubling to 20,000. And Bark is going from being a nonprofit advocacy newsletter to a for-profit business owned by Kawczynska and Woo.

The Bark sells subscriptions for $10 a year but supports itself mainly through paid advertising. Single copies are distributed free. Issue four carries ads for doggie day care, canine obedience schools, a pet hospital, a photographer who specializes in portraits of people with their pets, a pet-sitting service, pet food stores, a grooming service--even a self-described “telepathic animal communicator.”

Editorially, Bark balances the practical and the artistic, the earnest and the whimsical. It prints testimonials to canine soulfulness and intelligence and laments on the deaths of pets, tongue-in-cheek essays (the paper has a canine movie reviewer), jokes, drawings and photographs, letters, essays about the evolution of man’s best friend, tips about traveling with pets, and advice on how to care for Spot, Fido and Rex.

In a piece headlined “Dog Fights and Other Natural Disasters,” the reader is tipped on what to do--and what not to do--if a fight breaks out. “Don’t scream! . . . When you scream, you become part of their pack, cheering them on.”

Much of Berkeley’s offbeat artistic sensibility and literary ambition has made its way into Bark. Castro Theatre film programmer Anita Monga and former Pacific Film Archive programmer Peter Moore write for Bark. National Public Radio contributor Daniel Pinkwater is contributing a short story to the next issue. Artists Mark Ulriksen and Max Schroder have published drawings and photographs in its pages.

No contributors to Bark are paid. Kawczynska says she hopes to pay them in the future, but says that it hasn’t been a problem so far.

“Dog people are generous people,” she said. “Dog people like to share their experiences--like this whole phenomenon of walking dogs in city parks. This takes it to another level.”

Beyond that, she believes Bark’s sincerity and sophistication win people over. Woo, who works up the design and layout of Bark in his home office on a Power Mac, says he tries to allot lots of white space, enhance legibility and give the publication “a smart look.” Published on a traditional web press, Bark sticks to basic black and white, forgoing splashy, pricey four-color processes.