The Berkeley Daily Planet was a free weekly newspaper published in Berkeley, California, which continues today as an internet-based news publication. The Daily Planet is politically progressive, and offers endorsements of progressive and liberal to left leaning candidates. The Berkeley Daily Planet provides coverage of City Council meetings as well as other official city functions and commissions. The Planet distinguishes itself from other local news sources in its detailed coverage of local land use issues in the city. History The Berkeley Daily Planet was founded April 7, 1999 by a group of journalists and Stanford MBAs with funding from outside investors. In September 2000, the Daily Planet'''s owners, doing business as Bigfoot Media, started a second free daily, the San Mateo Daily Journal. On November 22, 2002, due to the soft Bay Area retail economy, the Berkeley Daily Planet suspended publishing temporarily. "Employees arrived at work this morning only to learn the newspaper's board of directors had decided to shutter the paper," the Daily Californian wrote in its November 22, 2002 issue. The Daily Cal noted that the Los Angeles Times speculated in January 2002 that the Daily Planet had not made a profit since its inception in 1999, a contention the owners said was not true. On April 1, 2003, Becky and Michael O'Malley—described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a "liberal Berkeley couple who are grandparents and longtime activists"—began publishing the Berkeley Daily Planet again, but only twice a week, Tuesday and Friday. However, they kept the word "Daily" in the paper's name. Since the O'Malleys restarted the Planet with Michael O'Malley as publisher, Becky O'Malley as executive editor and Michael Howerton as managing editor, it has won a number of awards from the California Newspaper Publishers' Association and other organizations, including first prizes for its opinion page, which publishes lengthy reader-written commentaries, and the editorial cartoons of Justin DeFreitas. On February 4, 2010 the Planet broke a story that "Clickbooks.com", their own payroll firm, had conducted fraud. The firm had under-reported employee income to the IRS, and pocketed the difference in payroll tax. In March, 2010, the Daily Planet ceased production of its print edition altogether, and since then it has been online only. Financial reasons were cited by its publishers. Almost from its inception the Daily Planet published an online version, in addition to its newsprint edition. The online archives go back to April 1, 2000.