Radio interview: San Francisco Public Press in big print

“Media Minutes,” a national radio program from the nonprofit media policy group Free Press, aired a show June 11 that included an interview with Lila LaHood, director of operations and development at the Public Press, about the upcoming print pilot edition launch. Below is a transcript of the program:

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The San Francisco Public Press is a nonprofit news organization that publishes public interest reporting with the help of more than 50 professional and volunteer journalists and other nonprofit groups.

Online since 2007, the San Francisco Public Press is about to launch a pilot print edition. In an era where other newspapers are shrinking in size, the Public Press print edition will be big – 22 x 14 inches – with 28 full-size broadsheet pages, mostly in color, filled with news and features, but with no paid advertising.

Lila LaHood is the Director of Operations for the Public Press, which relies on support from foundations and individual donors.

Lila LaHood: We’re trying to do public interest, civic affairs journalism. Some local culture as well. A lot of our stories look at public policy and try to analyze, maybe, larger trends through a local lens. We do a lot of stories that focus on local civics and politics, public policy – issues that would affect a broad range of people who live and work in San Francisco.

LaHood says the Public Press has a commitment to underserved communities.

Lila LaHood: We hope to reach those audiences more with the print edition. Really, the problem isn’t so much with the print newspaper – people still subscribe to print newspapers – but it’s with the advertising model. And having news sponsored by advertising to support print newspapers just isn’t working anymore. We’re looking a
print as a way to bridge the digital divide. Even in a place like San Francisco, not everyone has broadband access at home, and if print newspapers disappear, we’re
limiting access to news for a lot of people in San Francisco.

LaHood says they are experimenting with innovative ways to tell the news. In one feature, they’ve paired a comic artist and a reporter together to produce a graphic novel
that will take up one full page.

Lila LaHood: We think this is going to capture a lot of attention because it’s a great way to present and illustrate an important public policy story, but in a more compelling way
that we think will help deliver it to a broader audience.

The print edition will start out as a quarterly. They hope to move to a weekly edition within a year. For more information about the San Francisco Public Press, go to sfpublicpress.org.