Supporting Local Journalism and Empowering Our Collective Social Health

The San Francisco Public Press wants you to know two things: the truth behind the major problems afflicting the Bay Area, and the role that journalism can play in fixing them.

Created by local journalists in 2008 as newspapers around the country were laying off reporters or closing their doors, the San Francisco Public Press produces print, digital, and radio journalism about urgent civic issues, especially those affecting underserved communities. Their exposés about homelessness, data privacy, and the environment have been reprinted in marquee publications like ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times. The organization is also reaching new audiences through its weekly “Civic” radio show and podcast. 

This year, staff writer Yesica Prado received a prestigious Ida B. Wells Fellowship from Type Investigations. She is one of only four reporters in the country to receive this honor and participate in this year-long, intensive program where she will do investigative reporting with some of the most accomplished journalists in the field.

“We are the eyes and ears of San Francisco,” says Executive Director Michael Stoll.

But getting to the truth through investigative reporting about local issues is only half the battle, Stoll says. The other half is inspiring people to make changes. 

“What happens if, in reaction to our rigorous exploration of broken systems, people just get depressed and give up?” he says. “Our responsibility is to report on what’s wrong, but also to say, ‘Here are three things we can do about it, and here are the pros and cons of those approaches.’ This is so much more empowering.”

When the process works, there is a virtuous circle of journalism, community engagement, and solutions. 

For example, Prado’s reporting about increased fires in homeless camps during the pandemic revealed that a small community in East Oakland successfully deployed water-based fire extinguishers, which were easily refilled. The resulting article became part of community conversations, and this simple fire-fighting hack likely saved lives.

Moving forward, the Public Press hopes to engage in more conversations about important issues, creating a faster feedback loop between understanding a civic problem and developing a strategy to address it. To do so, they need to become more financially secure, as well as continue to make the case that local journalism is fundamental to our collective social health.

“Journalism is experiencing twin crises. One is its business model, and the other is a lack of trust in our age of misinformation,” Stoll says. But unless local citizens want to interpret raw data sets on their own, “the only solution is supporting the best of local journalism.”