Lila's blog

Please join us for a presentation and discussion of the

San Francisco Bay Area Journalist Census 2000-2010

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

6 to 8 p.m.

World Affairs Council of Northern California

312 Sutter St., San Francisco

6 to 6:30 p.m. — Reception with refreshments

6:30 to 8 p.m. — Presentation of the report, followed by a panel discussion with audience participation.

Find out how job loss has affected journalists in the Bay Area since 2000, talk with a few who have navigated the rapidly shifting media landscape and hear employment experts discuss where the job market is headed.

RSVP at http://journocensusevent.eventbrite.com

We hope to see you there!

Preliminary report summaries available at http://journalistcensus.org.

The San Francisco Bay Area Journalist Census a workforce study assessing changes in the media industry and job dislocation among Bay Area journalists, is sponsored by NOVA, a federally funded employment and training agency based in Sunnyvale. This event is cosponsored by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Renaissance Journalism Center at San Francisco State University.

The San Francisco Bay Area Journalist Census 2000-2010 has released preliminary reports from a study of employment trends among Bay Area journalists:

• an analysis of state and federal employment data
• a summary of executive-level interviews
• findings from the media worker survey

Do these findings reflect what you've observed? Let us know what you think here, on journalistcensus.org or by sending an email to info@journalistcensus.org. Some response comments will be included in the final report, which will be released on or about Thursday, April 14, followd by a presentation and discussion at a public event in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 19. Details to follow.

The Journalist Census is a project of the North Valley Job Training Consortium (NOVA), a federally funded nonprofit employment and training agency based in Sunnyvale. NOVA will produce a public report on the Journalist Census findings and will use the study to plan and support future training and workforce development programs in the Bay Area.

SF Public Press helped with efforts to contact current and former Bay Area journalists for this study. We'll be incorporating the findings in the media reporting project described in this Spot.Us pitch.

Holly Kernan, news director at San Francisco's KALW, interviewed Kevin Stark, one of our City Budget Watchdog reporters, for Crosscurrents on June 22.

In the wake of Hearst Corp.'s announcement Tuesday that it will impose extreme budget cuts at the San Francisco Chronicle and possibly sell or shutter the paper, KQED's Kelly Wilkinson interviewed Public Press Project Director Michael Stoll about developing models for sustainable news organizations.

The interview first aired on Feb. 25, 2009. You can listen to it here: http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R902251730

KQED's Forum devoted an hour to discussing the possibility that San Francisco could lose its only major daily newspaper.

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed time, energy and inspiration to The Public Press, and to those who have made recent and renewed offers to volunteer as we prepare to launch our local newsroom. With News Editor Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig directing editorial staff, we're ready to make volunteer job assignments.

Please take a few minutes to fill out this volunteer job survey. You will have an opportunity to choose from a list of specific job titles. What kind of help do we need? All kinds. We're looking for journalists as well as volunteers with diverse skills to help in the newsroom and with general operations. After you submit your responses, you will hear from Michelle or one of our operations team leaders to confirm your availability and job assignments.

If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Lila LaHood at lila [at] public-press.org.

See you in the newsroom!