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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it called the "Bay Area News Project"? Is that the name?

We are currently developing a name. For now, we're going with "The Bay Area News Project" (or News Project for short), which is our corporate name.

Do we really need more news in the Bay Area?

The Bay Area is one of the most intellectually curious, engaged, and community-minded regions in the nation. We believe the community has a voracious appetite for high-quality news and information. We also believe that ambitious, penetrating, dynamic coverage of news is critical to a functioning democracy.

However, there isn't as much news about the Bay Area as there once was. While over 900 professional journalists once covered the Bay Area, the same work is now done by around 500 journalists.1 Over the past ten years, the number of original, professionally-written stories about key issues for the Bay Area declined from 100 per day to 40 at one major metro paper.2 Most of that decline came from coverage of what we call "civic" news topics - including education, government, science, health, arts - some of which has declined twice as severely as topics such as sports and entertainment.

  1. Interviews, press releases
  2. Based on Factiva search of stories on the second Wednesday of each month for a Bay Area regional newspaper from May 12, 1999 to May 6, 2009; excludes wire stories
Why are you being formed as a non-profit?

We believe that professional, civic journalism is a public good - much like public education and public parks. Robust professional news coverage brings multiple societal benefits:

  1. Plays a "watchdog" role on government: A 2003 study published in The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization shows a decline of about 50 percent in the number of state employees convicted for corruption crimes where there is a high circulation of newspapers. 1
  2. Encourages civic participation: Recent Princeton University research revealed that when The Cincinnati Post ceased operations, incumbents became 16-19 percentage points more likely to win re-election and voter turnout fell by 1-8 percentage points in areas where the Post had significant readership.2
  3. Serves as an unbiased fact base: Professional journalists provide 1.5 to 2.5 times more news and less opinion than citizen journalists and bloggers, according to Pew's The State of the News Media 2009.3
  4. Provides the glue that ties a community together: News also serves the vital function of informing residents about what is happening in their local neighborhood.
  5. In our opinion, market mechanisms alone can no longer be relied upon to produce the quality journalism the Bay Area needs. Thus, we believe that public support must and will become a critical part of the solution. We've already gotten very positive feedback about the need for an organization like the Bay Area News Project, and we are confident that the community will step up to support high-quality original journalism about their hometown.
  1. Are You Being Served? Political Accountability and Quality of Government (Alicia Adsera, Carles Boix and Mark Payne), Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, 19:2, pp. 445-490, 2003.
  2. "Do Newspapers Matter? Evidence from the Closure of The Cincinnati Post", Sam Schulhofer-Wohl and Miguel Garrido, NBER Working Paper No. 14817
  3. Pew State of the News Media, 2009
What will you cover?

We anticipate that our professional newsroom will generate original, in-depth Bay Area coverage of topics of great interest to our community-whether it is regional, city-level, neighborhood, or national and international news that affects the Bay Area. Over time, coverage will include government and public policy, education, the arts and cultural affairs, and the environment, as well as food, wine and neighborhood news.

How will you distribute your stories?

What we've learned is that no one medium can satisfy all news consumers. Simply put, different people like to consume news in different ways. Moreover, the same person may read a newspaper in the morning, read news online during the day, listen to radio news during the drive home, and watch TV news in the evening.

On one hand, we believe the future of news is digital. No other channel is growing faster or is better suited to distribute information that is highly dynamic and has a short shelf life. However, we believe that an online-only model would potentially exclude a number of populations who primarily consume news through more traditional channels.

The Bay Area News Project intends to deliver across all these distribution channels. Our free website, as well as our mobile applications, will be our primary outlet. The New York Times will provide print distribution on Fridays and Sundays through their Bay Area section. Finally, we also plan to collaborate with local broadcasters to distribute news via radio and television.

How will you work with UC Berkeley?

We are thrilled to have UC Berkeley's renowned journalism faculty and dozens of talented graduate students involved in the Bay Area News Project. The J-School is not only a nationally recognized leader in journalism education and ethics, but it is also known for its innovations in "hyperlocal" online neighborhood news projects (including www.missionlocal.org and www.oaklandnorth.net). As part of its collaboration with the News Project, the School will also seek to collaborate with Berkeley's Engineering, Business, and Information Schools on other innovations in this emerging field.

How will you work with The New York Times?

The New York Times is an internationally respected news organization known for the quality and rigor of its journalism. To serve news consumers who prefer a print product, we have signed an agreement with The New York Times Company where our journalists will provide news and commentary to The New York Times for its San Francisco Bay Area editions on Friday and Sunday.

How will you work with the community?

Community news is an important element in this project, and coverage of it will be partly shaped by community voices. We will seek out opportunities for new voices from multiple perspectives to be heard, and engage the community's input and responses through social media. We also hope to collaborate with leading local bloggers with unique viewpoints and deep ties to their communities.

How will you work with KQED?

The News Project and KQED have had a strong collaborative relationship over the past six months. KQED has provided valuable expertise in the establishment of our editorial guidelines, and advice on creating a new nonprofit journalistic enterprise for the Bay Area. Going forward, the Bay Area News Project will continue to seek the input and contributions of KQED, though KQED will no longer play a role on the News Project's Board of Directors. However, we expect to pursue further conversations about editorial collaborations with KQED once we get our newsroom up and running.

How much have you raised so far? What will my contribution fund?

The Hellman Family Foundation has provided a gift of $5 million as initial seed funding for the Bay Area News Project. We've also received support from the Knight Foundation. Community contributions will be extremely important and will help fund our ongoing operational expenses: reporters' salaries, cameras and laptops, and everything else associated with producing quality journalism. You can donate online through the button our website - any amount big or small helps.

Are my donations tax-deductible?

Yes! The Bay Area News Project is currently a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives, a 501(c)(3) organization. This means that all donations to the News Project are tax deductible and you will receive a tax receipt for your donation.

When will you officially launch?

Our goal is to launch by late spring of 2010.

How will you be sustainable?

The News Project's business model mirrors that of many successful non-profit models, including public broadcasting. Both NPR and PBS have succeeded in leveraging a public support model to provide high-quality, trusted news and information. Like them, we are open to a wide variety of revenue streams - from both non-profit sources (e.g., community support, philanthropic support, foundations) and earned revenue sources (e.g., advertising, licensing royalties). Original, in-depth professional reporting is expensive, and every little bit helps. With community support, we project that we will achieve sustainability.

Are you hiring?

We are starting to hire a staff of professional journalists, as well as technical and business personnel. If you are interested, we'll be listing job postings as they open on our careers page.

Will you really be independent and unbiased?

Yes. Our newsroom will be free from two types of bias: partisan bias and influence from funders or advertisers. This is something that public news organizations have practiced for decades. We believe in a strong editorial firewall between reporters/editors and management. The New York Times and UC Berkeley, as part of our editorial advisory board, will bring the highest standards to the table in protecting our news from outside influences.

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