We’ve had a great response to our fundraising drive so far, but we still need your help to reach our $6,000 goal. Our board of directors will match donations up to $3,000 til the end of the year. One more week!
Please support independent public media in San Francisco by becoming a member today.
Our first intern, Ambika Kandasamy, shares her perspective on working in a nonprofit newsroom
How did you get involved with the Public Press?
I joined the organization in February 2009 as an editorial intern. At the time, I was a student at Boston University, working on my master’s degree in journalism. I moved to the Bay Area to finish up my final projects and was looking for opportunities to gain reporting experience and internship credit.
How have you grown within the organization?
I returned to the Public Press less than a year after my internship ended, and I’ve been writing for the website and print editions since then. I worked on the San Francisco Bay Area Journalist Census project as a researcher. Most recently, I’ve been working as a partnerships editor — curating stories from our news partners like Mission Local, KQED News, California Watch, El Tecolote and other news and civic groups.
How is the Public Press helpful for young reporters?
It’s a great place for young reporters to grow intellectually. The editors offer much support to all reporters, but especially to those who are just starting out in the field.
Most Public Press stories are tied to larger policy issues and require a significant amount of research and reporting. There’s also a strong emphasis on original reporting — we publish stories that aren’t getting much attention in mainstream news outlets. That kind of reporting builds a solid foundation in journalism.
What do you enjoy most about working here?
The staff is wonderful. I also love working on the print editions. I graduated at a time when traditional print journalism was sort of disintegrating, and being able to work on our quarterly newspaper has been an exciting opportunity to learn about the print medium. Our ad-free model gives us space to experiment with the design, layout and graphics of the print editions, which is quite fun.
Why should people support the Public Press?
At our news meetings, we find that we always have a surplus of great story ideas, and though we’re able to tackle many of them, there are some stories that we have to push aside simply because we don’t have the funding to pay journalists to pursue them.
Also, we would love to supplement more of our stories with multimedia. Additional funding through memberships, donations and grants would help us buy cameras, editing software, computers and other technological tools.
Your donation will help the Public Press build a more robust newsroom to cover under-reported stories in San Francisco and beyond. Consider making a year-end donation today.
