When firefighters and advocates for the disabled get into shouting matches over resources, you know there’s a lot at stake. It’s happening in San Francisco, in this summer’s city budget battle. Trouble is, there’s little in-depth, nonpartisan coverage of the issues residents are screaming at each other about. That’s what we hope to change with […]
Author Archives: Michael Stoll
Michael Stoll is senior editor and co-founder of the San Francisco Public Press. Formerly executive director, he has also been a reporter and freelance writer for local and national outlets, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has taught journalism at two Bay Area universities, and researched media ethics at Stanford.
Posted inNews
Corporate dumping suits spread as state mulls cuts to environmental health
Jerry Brown. Photo by Thomas Hawk via Flickr. In a week when politicians in Sacramento are debating whether to eliminate state agencies that monitor environmental health, government lawyers across the state are joining forces to crack down on corporate pollution. Attorney General Jerry Brown, 20 district attorneys and the Los Angeles city attorney jointly filed […]
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San Francisco moves toward mandatory recycling, composting
By Michael Pistorio and Hank Drew The Public Press The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to pass the mandatory recycling and composting ordinance. The ordinance requires all San Francisco residential and commercial building owners to sign up for composting and recycling services. Violators will be charged a $500 fine. The lone dissenter, District […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
Turning another page in the news
The future of journalism is in Las Vegas — or at least that’s what Rob Curley, multimedia extraordinaire and tech consultant for The Las Vegas Sun, imbued into a large group of entrepreneurs and media folks at Stanford business school Tuesday night. “What if a newspaper could start over?” he began his presentation by asking. […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
The Public Press at the Web 2.0 Expo
In early April, The Public Press attended the Web 2.0 Expo at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco, and was flooded with interest from technologists and entrepreneurs. Steering committee member Lila LaHood had the chance to speak with a reporter from KRON 4 News.
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
NPR’s Vivian Schiller addresses ‘buzz’ on expanding public-media model
The new CEO of National Public Radio, Vivian Schiller, spoke on video recently with Knight Pulse, a journalism blog from the Knight Foundation. She said she’s encouraged by the proliferation of public-media startups around the country. The "buzz" around the notion that newspapers try to live off endowments is misleading, she argued, because it […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
Alert: Help us fund a story about the closure of Stacey’s Bookstore
UPDATE 3/4/09: This story was fully funded in less than 24 hours! Thanks to all the contributors, listed here: http://spot.us/pitches/139 * * * As part of our ongoing collaboration with the journalism microfunding project Spot.us, we’ve put up a "pitch" for a daily story we think needs to get covered … Can you help us […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
San Francisco Chronicle could close. What will fill the void?
The announcement by the Hearst Corp. that it is considering closing the San Francisco Chronicle is a defining moment for startup local journalism projects like The Public Press. Cuts in the newspaper business across the country have astounded journalists and readers as we’ve contemplated the effects of a vanishing press. The possibility that the San […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
Fitzhugh-Craig Joins The Public Press as News Editor
Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, the former city editor of the Oakland Tribune, is joining The Public Press as news editor. As the project’s first editorial appointment, Fitzhugh-Craig will coordinate a growing pool of volunteer and freelance journalists who have converged to bring important and under-covered news stories to broad audiences in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fitzhugh-Craig […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
Spot.us and The Public Press on NPR
Martina Castro, a reporter for the National Public Radio show "Day to Day," produced a recent story exploring the notion that the audience can help fund independent reporting. The piece, "Is Community-Funded Journalism the Answer?" focuses on David Cohn’s Spot.Us project, as he asserts that small donations spread over a large group can be immune […]