About

Mission

Future Tides covers how people work, play and live on the Pacific Northwest’s waterways to help the maritime community navigate what’s next.

Vision

Future Tides’ vision is to be at the center of a more collaborative, sustainable and equitable maritime community.

Values

• Future Tides is an independent news organization dedicated to ethical journalism. View our Editorial Policy.
• These waterways are the ancestral homeland of the indigenous Coast Salish people. They are still here. 
• Future Tides is for lifelong learners. We may be experienced but we are all still learning.
• Readers’ questions will become stories, which will in turn spark new questions.
• We believe a sustainable and equitable future for all who share our marine waterways is possible.
• Journalism is a service. The modern maritime community deserves a modern maritime publication.

How Future Tides got started

Cara Kuhlman founded Future Tides in 2021, merging her maritime and media experience. The idea started after observing a gap, and an opportunity for a digital-first, regional news source focused on where the maritime community is heading, not just its history.

A journalist, sailor and graduate of the University of Oregon, Cara previously worked at a community boating center, a commercial boat builder and has written about making sailing more accessible. She got her start in media editing a hyper-local neighborhood blog before joining a tech news startup, where she learned about all aspects of the business. She's also worked in public media and is currently a full-time editor.

To make this new maritime media venture a reality, Cara participated in the second cohort of CUNY's Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program. In 2023, Future Tides was invited to join the Tiny News Collective, a nonprofit helping people build sustainable news organizations to serve their communities.

Funding

Future Tides is a member of LION Publishers and participated in the 2023 cycle of their Sustainability Audit program which provided expert guidance and $20,000.

Future Tides is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at pressforward.news.

And Future Tides receives financial support from audience members through its Future Tides Crew membership program, and through charitable donations to our fiscal sponsor Tiny News Collective.