Welcome to Incremental Outcome!

I’m Chris Pugh. I’m a journalist, editor, and photographer in Mendocino County, California. I’ve spent years covering small-town stories in places most people drive through without stopping.

I’m the Deputy Editor at the Ukiah Daily Journal, and the Managing Editor of the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon. I co-founded MEDIUM Art Center, a nonprofit gallery in Ukiah, where there are no submission fees, no commissions, and no gatekeeping. Art should be accessible. We try to make it that way.

I write about local government, environmental issues, the arts, and everyday life on the North Coast. The reporting work pays the bills. The writing here is something else.

Incremental Outcome is where I think out loud. Some of these posts are about Mendocino County. Some are about photography, or the creative practice of paying attention, or what it’s like to live in a place you’ve chosen to stay in. A few are about the harder stuff: grief, burnout, the distance between what you value and how you actually spend your days.

The name is the point. Small, concrete forward motion. Not a manifesto. Not a brand. Just the accumulation of showing up and putting something down.

When I’m not at a desk, I’m photographing the overlooked edges of Northern California. Empty buildings, faded signs, the kinds of places that don’t ask to be noticed. I go back to the same streets. I’m not looking for masterpieces. I’m looking for contact.

Why Subscribe?

Subscribers get full access to everything I write, early glimpses of the projects I’m working on, and a chance to be part of an ongoing conversation. If my work resonates with you, your support helps keep this space honest, independent, and grounded in something real. It is not driven by clicks, outrage, or algorithms.

Why Support?

Independent writing thrives when readers support it. If my writing resonates with you, subscribing and sharing helps keep it going. More than that, it helps carve out a space for honest storytelling and critical thinking in a world that too often rewards noise over nuance.

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll subscribe and join the conversation.