The Bay Citizen was a non-profit news organization covering the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. It was founded as the Bay Area News Project in January 2010 with money provided by

Warren Hellman F. Warren Hellman (July 25, 1934 – December 18, 2011) was an American investment banker and private equity investor, the co-founder of Hellman & Friedman, a multibillion-dollar private equity firm. Hellman also co-founded Hellman, Ferri Inve ...

's Hellman Family Foundation. On May 26, 2010 the organization launched the website, baycitizen.org. In June 2010 The Bay Citizen began producing content for the newly added biweekly two-page Bay Area Report published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. ''The Bay Citizen'' was part of a small but growing number of similar news organizations across the country dedicated to locally focused public service journalism, including

Voice of San Diego ''Voice of San Diego'' is a nonprofit news organization focused on issues affecting the San Diego region. Background ''Voice of San Diego'' is an online-only local news site. Established in 2005, it was one of a number of such publications tha ...

Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a news website headquartered in Austin, Texas. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. Its website and content in various delivery platforms serve as an alternativ ...

, and

MinnPost ''MinnPost'' is a nonprofit online newspaper in Minneapolis, founded in 2007, with a focus on Minnesota news. Funding ''MinnPosts initial funding of $850,000 came from four families: John and Sage Cowles, Lee Lynch and Terry Saario, Joel and ...

History

In early 2009 billionaire investor and Bay Area philanthropist

convened an advisory committee to explore a solution to the lack of strong local journalism. In January 2010, The Bay Area News Project was founded. Lisa Frazier, formerly the head of

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

’s West Coast Media and Entertainment practice, was appointed President and CEO. Jonathan Weber, formerly of

The Industry Standard ''The Industry Standard'' is a U.S. news web site dedicated to technology business news, part of ''InfoWorld'', a news website covering technology in general. It is a revival of a weekly magazine based in San Francisco which was published betwe ...

was recruited to lead the newsroom. In addition to Weber, editorial staff includes Managing Editor for News

Steve Fainaru Steve Fainaru ( ro, Făinaru; born 1962) is an American investigative journalist and senior writer for ESPN.com and ''ESPN The Magazine''. He was previously a correspondent for the ''Washington Post'', where his coverage of the Iraq War earned him ...

, previously an investigative journalist with the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''; Jeanne Carstensen, formerly of

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

, and

SFGate.com The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The p ...

, and 11 full-time

journalists A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. Weber claims he received over 500 resumes for the editorial positions. On March 23, 2010 the organization changed their name to "The Bay Citizen" and added the slogan "News/Culture/Community." CEO Lisa Frazier said in a news release that the name was chosen because "Our mission is to provide news and information that helps create more 'Bay Citizens.'" According to the SF Business Times, The Bay Citizen raised $3.7 million from foundations and families. Don Fisher, Gap founder, and Value Act CEO Jeff Ubben donated $1 million each, but the site also raised money from less wealthy and prominent donors. The site received a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which gives money to journalism projects. This came on top of the Hellman Family Foundation's $5 million in seed money. ''The Bay Citizen'' alongside ''

The Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a news website headquartered in Austin, Texas. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. Its website and content in various delivery platforms serve as an alternativ ...

'' also recently received a joint $975,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to develop an open source publishing platform tailored for nonprofit news organizations. The system, named

Armstrong Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong ...

, is based on technology ''The Bay Citizen'' has previously been employing. Warren Hellman died on December 18, 2011, of complications from treatments for leukemia. Jeffrey Ubben, co-chairman of the board of directors, assumed the chairmanship. In May 2012, The Bay Citizen merged with the

Center for Investigative Reporting The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in Emeryville, California. It was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization, and has since grown into a multi-platf ...

. In May 2013, The Bay Citizen newsroom merged into the CIR.

Relationship with ''The New York Times''

Starting in 2010, the ''Bay Citizen'' produced the Bay Area Report, a two-page section of ''The New York Times'' distributed to 65,000 households in the Bay Area. According to ''The Times'', the ''Bay Citizen'' "has pledged that its newsroom will be strictly independent, nonpartisan and apolitical. Donors and board members can have no influence over news decisions..." The relationship with ''The New York Times'' ended at the end of April 2012 as a result of the Bay Citizen's merger with the Center for Investigative Reporting.Bay Citizen, New York Times to Part Ways
Peter H. Lewis, Baycitizen.org, 11 April 2012.

Board of directors

, Chairman of the Board and founder of

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts o ...

*Neil Henry, Dean of the

University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is a graduate professional school on the campus of University of California, Berkeley. It is among the top graduate journalism schools in the United States, and is designed to produce journalists wi ...

*Jeffrey Ubben, Founder of ValueAct Capital and Chair of the

Posse Foundation The Posse Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that partners with select colleges and universities in the United States to provide student scholarships and leadership training. Posse connects a network of more than 10,000 scholars and ...

*Andrew Woeber, Partner/Managing Director at Greenhill & Co. *Susan Hirsch, President of Hirsch & Associates, LLC *Lisa Frazier, President and CEO of The Bay Citizen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bay Citizen American news websites Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area Organizations based in San Francisco