Interview with Lisa Frasier of The Bay Citizen, a new paradigm for Journalism in the Bay Area
TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1:Okay. Okay. Okay. In 2009, the San Francisco Chronicle admitted that they were losing the battle against the Internet and that the only way forward would be massive cuts in staffing. Google and Twitter had replaced it for news, craigslist for classifieds and local blogs for local civics and politics. A 144 year old institution in the land of innovation had found itself kind of date and out of touch with the future today on method to the madness, we interviewed the CEO [00:00:30] of base citizen.org. Hey, bay area news organization that's attempting to redefine how the bay area gets its news. Stay with us.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:um, my name is Lisa Frazier. I'm president and CEO of the base citizen. The Base citizen is a [00:01:00] new nonprofit news organization. It's an independent organization. Uh, and our mission is to foster and foster civic engagement. We've got by providing fact-based news, uh, really in the core civic issues.
Speaker 1:Oh, one of our interview is about what the Internet did to newspapers.
Speaker 3:I think the, the Internet has been around now for quite, quite some time, even though it's really a short period and it's impacted a lot of industries in particular the news industry and phenomenally that's been led [00:01:30] by, uh, is driven by consumer behavior. So in reality, what's happening is consumers today, uh, uh, actually read more news or listen to more news or watch more news than, uh, they did before. And that is really a, um, an outcome of the Internet being available, right? Because people are reading news during the day at lunchtime, uh, on smartphones now on tablet devices such as the iPad and what that has, uh, shifted those, those eyeballs, [00:02:00] if you will, to those digital formats for news, which has left people from, uh, subscribing to newspapers. And so what's happening in the industry as eyeballs and people have shifted to the digital, uh, consumption of news.
Speaker 3:Uh, the core, uh, economic model of the newspaper has been in decline and predominantly because that is the loss of subscription, uh, which is I e the circulation of the newspaper in towns across the country. And then on top of that, therefore the advertising [00:02:30] revenues also fall, right? Because if as an advertiser, they wanna have the most return on their investment for their advertising dollars. And those audiences in the paper have shifted now over the last few years. That has led to actually a real shift in a real decline in journalism jobs. And in fact, uh, according to, uh, organizations such as Pew, we're at a point now where, um, less than half the states have a newspaper covering Washington DC and therefore [00:03:00] covering their representatives here in the bay area. The work that we did in preparation to starting the base an an, and this was back in 2009, we show that there had been a 50% reduction in journalist jobs.
Speaker 3:Um, and what we found is when we looked at the content production of those newspapers in our local area, over time, there was a disproportionate amount of reduction in the civic beats. And those civic beats are governance and policy or you know, City Hall Education, [00:03:30] health, uh, transportation, the environment, justice, social justice and arts and culture. And so that's what the Internet has done in intimate as enable consumers to, uh, to consume news in different places. And that has put a pressure on the previous economic model of the newspaper, [00:04:00] a number of citizens here in the bay area, including, uh, Warren Hellman, uh, chairman of the board of the base citizen, also myself and, and a handful of others, uh, you know, started the conversation about what would this mean in the bay area. And originally, uh, this, the kind of the catalyst for it was an announcement, uh, by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009.
Speaker 3:So, and they will likely to close. [00:04:30] Now obviously they didn't do that, but that's the catalyst for the analysis that then took place, uh, through 2000 and I to really understand what had been lost here in the bay area. And those are some of the statistics I just referred to. And what happened from there is a real in depth view, right, of not only in the field of journalism here, but what would, what innovations are happening across the country. And from that, uh, through 2009, we bet began to put together, um, the blueprint, [00:05:00] if you will, for the Bay citizen. And what we're trying to do on a day to day basis here is to continue to be leading edge. And by that I mean staying up with the trends, uh, of what's happening in innovation in news. Also pushing those frontiers ourselves. Um, and so that we're not only supporting, uh, the citizens of the bay area by providing them the civic news. But we're also doing innovation in the field of journalism [00:05:30] at the same time. And that's what we felt was really important part of the work that we did in 2009 to so not only are there, not only is that the job loss is important because of that important watchdog role that journalists play has, has declined, but also the fact that there is not enough innovation in this field for, you know, for news in a digital era.
Speaker 1:The watchdog role of the press was indeed a core concept of the founding fathers of this.
Speaker 4:Thomas Jefferson once said, if once [00:06:00] the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I and Congress and assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature in spite of individual exceptions. But to continue shedding light on public affairs, today's news organizations must innovate. I asked Ms. Frazier how they tackle this problem.
Speaker 3:So we're a small organization, so it's, it's not that we can have a, for one r and d if you will, whether you're a pharmaceutical company. Um, but what we have done [00:06:30] is, is, uh, structured a couple of key relationships to foster the innovation. One is actually, uh, an important, uh, group within the chain I'm sure you're very familiar with, which is, uh, the Graduate School of journalism that journalism at UC Berkeley. Um, and this was an arrangement and agreement. We may early in 2009, because of his innovation. So working with faculty and students to stay abreast of what's, uh, you know, what's happening in their fields and what things they're trying to do, but also extending [00:07:00] out into the computer science school and the Information School. Uh, because what's happening today is news needs to be more interactive, right? And there are folks over at UC Berkeley in the, those various faculties who are working on, whether it's graduate student projects or some of the professors who are actually working on ways to either look at information and data differently and so and so such that a consumer can actually interact with it.
Speaker 3:So adding comments or enabling a dialogue on a database [00:07:30] or, you know, some of the things that they've been doing is, uh, investigating the use of lobbyists, language in legislation, you know, things like that. And we're talking really help transparency in government. It also helps around the innovation of just what our news experience is. Because today it has traditionally been, you know, one way you read a newspaper, you listened to the radio with the, where you can actually change that and so that it becomes interactive. And so one of the investments, you know for what we're doing [00:08:00] is actually really around what we call our data library. And the data library is really a building around data applications so that a story becomes alive to that person. And so there are a couple of examples that um, know I pointed to and perhaps your listeners.
Speaker 3:One is bike accidents, right? Safety. We created the bike accident tracker. We just launched it a us our second version last week and I max out bike accidents as reported in the police department over the last five years, the last five [00:08:30] years of available data. And what that tells you is just what are the hazardous roads and safety issues in, you know, for biking in the bay area. And so people are emailing us saying, I'm riding my bike differently in a different way to work. And then other cities are now asking us, you know, for the backend so they can replicate this, um, across, you know, for their cities. And so the way this innovation happens is somewhat testing and trial different things here. For example, that data library becoming very interactive [00:09:00] in the, in the bike accident area and then other, and then as it becomes viral on social media and people read about it through either Facebook or Twitter, then others like us are picking that up and we'll want the support or the ability to do that.
Speaker 3:Um, another example is really the whooping cough or pertussis epidemic last year, uh, where um, there was an occurrence of the disease or high parents is, and yet this was not broadly recorded in public media, uh, or commercial media I should say. And then, [00:09:30] and then what happened is we put a database together, we meshed together the data from the um, the current of the disease and the non immunization rates of kids in schools. And so parents actually could look up their school to understand what was the non immunization rate and therefore exposure to the school for this disease. And you know what, I actually, the analysis showed us something like almost 8% of children in the kindergarten year of 2009 [00:10:00] 2010 were not immunized in Marin county. And yet they had a 10 x occurrence of the disease. And this led to conversations not only in parents groups but inside having conversations in city hall about well what do we do in times of epidemic now the growing population of non immunization children. And so that's the innovation of the news in a digital kind of era, which is what we're doing here.
Speaker 4:You are listening to k a l x Berkeley in 90.7 FM university and community sponsored radio. [00:10:30] This is method to the madness of 30 minutes show about the innovative spirit of the bay area. And I'm your host. Tallinn is our, we're speaking with the CEO of the base citizen. A local nonprofit news organization launched in 2009 as a response to the decimation of the newsrooms of the bay. I asked Ms. Frazier how the base citizen has used technology to gain competitive advantage and innovate.
Speaker 3:We have a, another relationship with the assistant on profit news organization [00:11:00] of ours. Um, the call the Texas Tribune and the Texas Tribune covers our politics for the state of Texas. And in our analysis through 2009, what we found is they were really the only other nonprofit news organization who was, um, fostering, uh, innovation in technology. And so we've merged our tech teams together. And as part of the innovation, what we're, um, we announced in March, we've created at an open source, are we creating an open source technology platform for content [00:11:30] management of a newsroom, um, and then integrating into that all the various business elements. So what this means is while we started with open source technology, uh, to create what is our functioning newsroom, we didn't want to, you know, recreate the wheel here. So we worked with our friends in Texas. We've created this common platform, that common flood platform is now being open source.
Speaker 3:We've had over 300 inquiries about people wanting to come onto the platform. The first few fields will come on in [00:12:00] at the end of someone. And what this really means is a real step change in the ability for organizations like us in co, in cities and towns across the country. So the people that come to see me or talk to me, the two people in Raleigh, North Carolina, the person up in the middle of Massachusetts technology is often a barrier. And so this, uh, our ability open sources platform with the support of the Knight Foundation is enabling these organizations to be able to serve [00:12:30] their communities by providing this nonprofit independent, fact-based news. And so in some cases these organizations will be for-profit cause it'd be truly open source technology. And that's exciting. Right. There are now 50 or so nonprofit news organizations yes. Across the country. Is that a relatively recent trend? Yes. Yeah. So I would have said, you know, five years. Yeah, yeah. They'd be lucky to be a handful. And there was some core, you know, folks like the Center for Public Integrity has been around for 20 years. Uh, one of the earliest versions of the base [00:13:00] citizen is actually the voice of San Diego down in San Diego and they're probably in their fifth or sixth year of operation.
Speaker 4:Perhaps just as important as the innovation on the technical side of the news organization. The industry now needs innovation. On the economic side as well. The base citizen is run as a nonprofit organization. And I asked Ms Frasier about their model.
Speaker 3:So we are, um, you're right, it's absolutely the hardest challenge of sustaining original journalism, uh, in this, in this, you know, this time where we [00:13:30] are today is, um, is the economic model. And interestingly, uh, and importantly, it's not unique to us, right? Meaning not unique to the bay area. It's not only, um, across the country that this is a problem, but it's actually now, you know, it's also a concern globally. And in fact, we've had, uh, over 30 different countries, uh, visit us, uh, organizations, whether they be from the general side or the business executive side on media coming to understand about this model. And so [00:14:00] what we are is really, we're trying to forge forward on a, on a number of things, a number of models taking elements and ingredients of, uh, traditional public broadcasting as well as traditional commercial media. Uh, and so what it is, it's around major donors and foundations.
Speaker 3:So, um, so the support we're getting from individuals here in the bay area is, um, a seed funding, if you will. We don't have an endowment. We have a seed fund to get to sustainability by 2014. [00:14:30] It's about the foundation support for the key projects that are donor enabled journalism. Original call it original content journalism to go forward. And like the Knight Foundation, it's around corporate underwriting. So we haven't done much of this today, but enabling corporate, uh, corporations that are here locally be part of the base citizen, be enabling this civic dialogue to underwrite, if you will. Uh, our efforts here. Um, then it's around membership by is the individual contributors, which I just mentioned. [00:15:00] Yeah. And membership is defined as, you know, someone who becomes, makes a donation at the membership level, which is typically wrapped $50 a year, uh, to support our, our organization.
Speaker 3:And we're thrilled that, you know, we've actually had quite, quite the momentum around individuals supporting us from the community. And then the last part is around content royalties. And so the New York Times pays us for the content to be a, which is more the traditional content licensing, uh, part of the revenue model, um, to pays us to [00:15:30] produce, uh, the bay area section. And so the reality is we have to address a number of potential revenue streams. We need all of those right to get to sustainability in 2014. Right now we are far more dependent on the individual giving, um, because it takes time to grow a business as you understand. And so for us growing, our organization is really about the community and membership support and the corporate underwriting support. And as that grows right, we've come very less dependent on [00:16:00] a major donors and therefore, uh, the organization's able to sustain itself, meaning it brings in and earns its money through those, the membership and corporate underwriting contributions, uh, to sustain its expense level.
Speaker 4:You are listening to k a l x Berkeley 90.7 FM. This is method to the madness, a 30 minute show about the innovative spirit of the bay area. I'm your host Ali Nasar and we're speaking with Liza Frazier, CEO of the base citizen.
Speaker 1:There's this [00:16:30] kind of idea of, of the filter of WHO's, who's the one who I trust to tell me the news. Does anybody can put anything out there? Um, do you think that there is somewhat of a land grab happening or some kind of race to determine who's going to be the new trusted voices in this kind of new millennium of information being everywhere? Or do you think there's room in the landscape of, like you said, people consume news constantly these days? Is [00:17:00] there room for everybody to get involved?
Speaker 3:Um, it's probably in between. I don't know that there's room for everybody to get involved. Um, I think that, I don't think I would agree that there's a land gram. I actually think that we have what one would call, um, essentially a media literacy challenge. Um, just like we have a civic literacy challenge with, uh, folks. Yeah. Civics being not as predominant in his school. [00:17:30] Um, uh, curriculum these days, media literacy is becoming, uh, more and more of a topic of discussion. And the reason being is because it is very difficult to desegregate, you know, what was original reporting versus what is an opinion on opinion, on opinion. And uh, you know, and in fact, Pew Research did a study that said, uh, that 80% of blogs start with a piece of original content news coming [00:18:00] out of a professional newsroom. So when you think of that shrinking newsroom, right, that, that, that kind of, that initial source of content, which is where all the bloggers are feeding off originally, not all, but some that are a large proportion of them, um, that Kinda kind of shows you it's very, very difficult and can have a feel of what the land grab.
Speaker 3:Um, but in reality, what we also have is in combination of that is the impact of Facebook [00:18:30] and Twitter, particularly Twitter, where, you know, news is now disseminated right through those, through those channels. And yet it's not necessarily the in depth read, right? It's this, the snippets. And so there is this whole fragmentation of the, there are the, um, the reading behavior. And so what happens is when people really want to know something, they're going to dig down. I believe back into brands [00:19:00] that they know. I mean there's a reason people go to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times or s you know, if it's CNN, whatever their preference is, right? They're very well established news brands and here and that's what we're trying to generate here for local in the bay area, we don't do international news, we don't do national news, we only do local news.
Speaker 3:And that, that even though there's a plethora of channels and there is a fragmentation of the consumer and where sometimes we'd predominantly competing with [00:19:30] people to spend time on civic news versus going on Facebook or TMZ or whatever their favorite thing is. And that's what, that's what I think will always, you know, truly come out. Right? Cause when you, we see no, when there are big issues, whether it's pension reform, whether it's the elections, you know, the mayor's election coming up, people actually want the deep, the depth. And that's why the, I believe that organizations like the Bay citizen in cities across the country can be successful if they're producing that quality of depth [00:20:00] and the original fact-based reporting.
Speaker 1:And it was the disappearance of the capabilities of the bay area newsrooms to do original fact-based reporting across a wide variety of civic Peet's that spawned the base citizen. And it came from the mind of Warren Hellman, who is the chairman and cofounder of San Francisco based Hellman and Friedman, a private equity investment firm that he founded in 1984. The firm has raised over $5 billion in capital in invested [00:20:30] in over 45 companies. Um, helmet has deep ties to Wall Street. He's a director of the Nasdaq. Uh, he worked for Lehman Brothers. Um, he also graduated from cal. Uh, he went to the Harvard business school. He's on the advisory board of the Haas business school, a real power broker who also may be better known to Calex listeners as the funder of hardly strictly bluegrass in San Francisco. The festival that turn 10 last year, [00:21:00] uh, he invests hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to run that festival every year as a gift to the city of San Francisco in the world. And now Mr Hellman is trying to give a different gift to the city of San Francisco in the bay area in general, the gift of news. And I asked Ms. Frazier, the CEO of base citizen what the other news organizations, specifically the chronicle thinks about their endeavor.
Speaker 3:Um, I haven't spoken to them, so it's pretty hard for me to really answer that. I mean, some people have commented that, [00:21:30] you know, the competition has been good because of the quality of reporting is, has been [inaudible] has raised. And if that's the case, then I think that's great. Right? Cause I mean, that's the reality of what we want. We want quality news, right. For the local area. And if that's the impact the bases and had on our competitors, then I applaud that. I think that's great. And, and, and competition is very healthy, right? I mean, I think that's an important part of who we are, uh, in any industry and that what inspires us to do more [00:22:00] and keep on going and, and essentially try to do the best that we can. And so, um, I'm not sure what their, their reaction would be to your question, but yeah, that's what the tidbits that I've heard.
Speaker 3:What about advantages of nonprofit in the kind of new world of, of journalism? I think we have an advantage because we don't have any legacy, right? I think that, uh, whether a nonprofit or for-profit, I mean someone, some that argue that the news organizations today are truly nonprofit, [00:22:30] even though they're a for profit entities because that's the reality of the economics. But I think our biggest advantages that we started from scratch in January, 2010, um, we don't have legacies or, you know, having to print a paper. We don't have those costs. We don't have to do truck rolls, you know, all those sorts of things. And to us, being able to start with a clean piece of paper, right, is truly, uh, is truly an advantage. Um, and, and I think the other benefit that [00:23:00] you know, we've had is that we're not trying to create a product that people don't understand, right? People have asked us to do this. People have thanked us for doing, for providing this new sores. And, and that is also an advantage, right? So people have missed something. They're thrilled that the BCIT is in, is here and doing it in the, in the ways that we are and, uh, in encouraging us to continue. And so that's to me the two, the two biggest advantages of what we're doing here at the base of Islam.
Speaker 1:You're listening [00:23:30] to KALX Berkeley and 90.7 FM. This is method to the madness, a 30 minute show about the innovative spirit of the bay area. And we're speaking with CEO Lisa Frazier of base citizen.org. The base it isn't as a nonprofit news organization founded in 2009 started in 2010 as covering the bay area news scene in a new and innovative. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well we're trying to do here is be very mission driven. I mean, this is about the civic news, the fabric of the community. [00:24:00] Um, it's how we make decisions, whether it's about health issues too, who gets voted into city hall to various propositions. And what we're trying to do is become in a world where there is a plethora of information available on the web that is becoming more and more difficult for consumers to really understand what's an opinion piece versus what is a fact based reported piece. And what we're trying to create here is that the base citizen is a trusted [00:24:30] brand and a name for individuals in the bay area about that civic news. Right? And so that's what this is about. It's, it's very mission-driven. We can't feel the void, right. That has been lost because of the newspaper economic model and, and we're not trying to do that.
Speaker 3:And which is why collaboration is an important element of the base citizens model. Because there are, there is great work happening in various, uh, parts of the bay area. And so we have, [00:25:00] as a, to your point, we have 27 different content partners, um, who are working with us. We provide us content, we'll publish as part of the base citizen. They're part of our partner program. And what happens is that they're doing, you know what some people really call very local or hyper local news. And so in Berkeley, you know, Berkeley side is one of those institutions who's one of our partners. And what we're doing is enabling a discussion and a dialogue or at least awareness of issues in the various pockets across [00:25:30] the bay area. Um, does the news rooms themselves, you know, I was just reading last night, the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000 were over a thousand people, just the newsrooms themselves then now to get a lesson 300 and so, you know, a nonprofit news organization like the base citizen with 32 people, 20 of those, you know, in the editorial function is not gonna replace that.
Speaker 3:But in the world today, because our, you know, the folks, [00:26:00] there are people doing various pieces in their neighborhoods, we can come together and collaborate, which is why the relationship, you know, with what the students are doing. I'm at UC Berkeley in know in their various um, you know, mission local and things like those, uh, those news sites to, you know, KGO radio, uh, to what we do. Would you print news in the New York Times every Friday and Sunday, the bay area section, which is what we only produce that there is a way right, to work together to enable that civic news. And [00:26:30] that's what we are doing. We will only be successful if we do that, if, if our news is available to the community. Right? Cause what we're about is not so much as building an institution, but it's about serving the community. And if we serve the community both for our definition, that means provide a news and fact based analysis on issues that are important to the community. If we do that well, the community will sustain us by becoming members of the base citizen, uh, by making a donation [00:27:00] and similar to what people do, whether they're a member of an arts institution or a member of public broadcasting. That's, that's what we're trying to do. So we're really serving the communities what the base it isn't as about,
Speaker 1:and of course serving the public good has always been one of the core tenants of a free and open press that does fact-based reporting. And we've had one in this country since its inception. I asked Ms. Frazier was she thought about journalism and what it will look like 10 years from now.
Speaker 3:It could be very [00:27:30] different. Um, I think, uh, you know, a lot of people have been saying, uh, you know, I'm to asking years, right, that newspapers will be gone in 10 years. Some people said 20 years and I don't have that crystal wall. But, uh, I really am questioning the longevity of newspapers, especially with the fast adoption, uh, and the depth of adoption of the iPad and tablet devices. I mean, even though that tablet market is not shaken out yet, right, there's still a lot as you know, [00:28:00] like kind of people rolling out various devices at different pricing levels and people are trying to trial and different things. But the people like, uh, the people that s you know, studying the usage of these devices show that, you know, people will read a newspaper the night before, right? Or they've already read it in the morning before it's been delivered on their doorstep.
Speaker 3:And so it's just a very interesting, you know, kind of accelerator. I think I probably have the decline for demand in newspapers. [00:28:30] Um, and then what's going to play in is how consumers pay for that, right? Because I mean, obviously there's a, you know, there is now, um, pay walls, um, there's needed pay at the New York Times there. Um, there are, there are some city newspapers and you know, have got put paywalls up. Um, and you're one of our reporters reportedly the chronicles are going to do that. And the chronicles rolled out their iPad app, uh, just this week, I think, or last week. And so there's [00:29:00] going to be just a shift in, in behavior again, right? There was like, your first question was about, well, what is the impact of the Internet? And now I think you're going to be, what is the impact of devices, right? Especially as you know, children today are, are operating, you know, our phones and iPads, you know, with a flicker thing fingers at three, three years of age. So what do you in 10 years, I mean, why would they ever pick up a newspaper
Speaker 1:if that's truly the case that in 10 years nobody will ever pick up a newspaper. It's really important for us as a society [00:29:30] to see projects like the bay citizens succeed so that we can have an open and transparent government. I like to think CEO, Lisa Frazier of the bay state is in for talking to us today. I've method to the madness. You can learn more about the base. It is. Am I going to base it as in.org we'll link to it from our site and method to the [inaudible] dot org you can go there also to contact us and see older show archives. Hi Mylene is our thanks for listening.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
