Hello there, Gazetteer readers! I hope you're staying as cool as possible this week (personally, I'm enjoying the AC in the Gazetteer office). As the newest addition to the team, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you all, and talk a bit about why I've signed onto the project.
I've spent the past decade working in local and national news, first as an investigative reporter and then as an editor. I'm passionate about holding powerful people to account for their actions, whether that's politicians, executives, talking heads, or the terminally wealthy. (Don't get me wrong, I love a good shitpost, too.)
As an alumna of publications like BuzzFeed and SFGATE, I've seen first-hand how toxic the effects of chasing Google and social media traffic can be to a newsroom's coverage decisions. When we live and die by clicks and SEO, there's little return on investment for in-depth reporting. Good journalism is often punished by the algorithms, and garbage rises to the top.
Ultimately, the people harmed the most in this system are news consumers – although the churn is pretty awful for the mental health of journalists, too.
Given the constant drumbeat of layoffs and closures and everything getting swallowed by vulture capital firms or the New York Times, it can be hard to see a way forward for independent local journalism in this country. But we fucking need it.
It's easy to roll your eyes at the pomposity of the "fourth estate," so I won't say anything about that. I'll just point out that the world works better when powerful people know their actions will see the light of day, when the public knows where their tax money is going, and when readers get news that's written for them, by people who live in their communities.
So we're trying something a little different: A smart, funny subscription publication, written for and about people who live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. I hope you'll join us. And if you have any tips, or ideas for how we can make it better, please shoot me an email at cat@gazetteer.co. I look forward to hearing from you.