About The Indio Post
The Indio Post is a modern alternative to the local newspaper. An independent news outlet dedicated to serving the community of Indio — and only Indio — with 100% original news reporting, it is owned and operated by your neighbors (profiled below) who saw gaps in our city’s news coverage and believed our community deserved better. The Post has no paywall, meaning readers do not have to pay to access stories. It is our belief that vital information needs to be available free of charge for the people impacted to read.
Staff
Kendall Balchan
EDITOR & CO-FOUNDER
Kendall is editor and co-founder of The Indio Post. She was born and raised in Indio, where she still lives, and brings deep local knowledge and context to every story. Prior to her work in local community news, she spent three years as a producer and investigative reporter at NBC Palm Springs. In 2024, she was honored as one of the rising stars of local news by the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation.
Mark Talkington
PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER
Mark is publisher and co-founder of The Indio Post. He first moved to the Coachella Valley in 1994 and has lived here both full time and part time ever since. He spent more than three decades as a newsroom leader at newspapers and digital media sites including The Desert Sun, ESPN.com, and at Microsoft, where he worked for 22 years before retiring in 2024. He launched The Palm Springs Post in February 2021 and helped grow it to be the most popular media outlet in that city.
OUR MISSION
All Indio residents deserve news about their city and neighborhoods, delivered in an unbiased, easy-to-digest format all for free. The Post aims to provide that by producing original local journalism that helps inform public decision-making, addresses the quality of life of our community’s citizens, and often holds our policymakers accountable. We also like to tell our readers’ stories. To do that, we listen to our neighbors and make sure they are valued and understood. In all that we do, earning the trust and respect of our audience is paramount.
MEMBERSHIPS
The Post is a member of LION (Local Independent Online News Publishers), the Indiegraf network of independent publishers, CalMatters, Online News Association (ONA), and other organizations working to promote local ownership of news outlets. Post staff members are also part of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and adhere to that organization’s guidelines.
CORRECTIONS
The Post and its editorial staff adhere to the code of ethics of the SPJ. How we deal with errors and omissions in our reporting is important to maintaining our integrity and the trust of readers and sources. When The Post publishes an error, we will acknowledge it and take appropriate steps to correct it as quickly as possible, both online and on our social media platforms. Readers who wish to alert us to errors and omissions can email us at editor@theindiopost.com
OUR USE OF AI
The Post utilizes a tool called Satchel, developed in part by one of our co-founders and launched as a startup in early 2024. Satchel uses generative AI technology to do a number of things such as helping to summarize complex documents — including staff reports and legal briefs — rewriting press releases, and suggesting headlines and edits for our stories. It can also listen to and transcribe government meetings and write basic news stories about what transpired. When we use Satchel, the final output is always fact-checked and edited by a member of The Post’s staff.
NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY
The Post and its parent company, Valley Voice Media, does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.
REACH US
The Indio Post mailing address is:
P.O. Box 596
Palm Springs, CA 92263
Our business phone/text is: 760-968-0081