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Berkeleyside

Berkeley, CA · covers Berkeley · nonprofit newsroom · est. 2009 · American Journalism Project, Cityside

In their words

Cityside Journalism Initiative

Berkeleyside is a groundbreaking nonprofit digital news platform in Berkeley, California, reporting on Berkeley and the East Bay. It was founded in October 2009 by journalists Frances Dinkelspiel, Tracey Taylor and Lance Knobel. In collaboration with new partners and leaders, they launched the Cityside Journalism Initiative to bring more great local journalism to the Bay Area.Berkeleyside has been joined by Nosh, providing news about the East Bay’s dynamic food scene, and The Oaklandside, which launched during the pandemic lockdown in June 2020 to serve Oaklanders. Together, those outlets reach more than 500,000 people in the East Bay every month. Richmondside, our third newsroom, launched in June 2024.

Berkeleyside has a loyal and engaged community of readers who visit our site, read our newsletters and follow us on social media. They contribute in myriad ways to help us deliver on our mission of “breaking news and building community.” Berkeleyside averages 1.2 million page views and 380,000 unique visitors a month.

Berkeleyside’s nonprofit newsroom relies on reader support to do its work. Donations from readers make up approximately one-quarter of Berkeleyside’s annual budget. More than 4,600 Berkeleyside readers are Berkeleyside members, those who make regular donations to support our community-centered journalism. If you find our work valuable we hope you will join them — and help keep our journalism free for all — by making a donation.

In 2019, the founders of Berkeleyside, which was previously a for-profit company, together with Tasneem Raja, created Cityside Journalism Initiative, a nonprofit, civic journalism organization that publishes Berkeleyside, The Oaklandside and Richmondside. Cityside is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization (EIN 84-3448887). All donations are tax-deductible.

Cityside’s board of directors

The members of Cityside’s board of directors are Mike Olson (chair), Lisa Armstrong, Candice Fortman, Evelyn Nussenbaum, Sara Rahimian, Emily Ramshaw, Martin Reynolds and Susan Stutzman. Further information is available on the Cityside site.

Senior public safety reporter

News editor and city hall reporter

Senior higher education reporter

K-12 education and immigration reporter

Audience engagement editor

Vice president, client partnerships

Chief Content Officer, co-founder

Senior Development Director

Becki Couch-Alvarado Director of Events

Jacob Simas Community JournalismDirector

Chief of Strategy, co-founder, editor-in-chief of The Oaklandside

Audience Engagement Producer

At Berkeleyside we strive for accuracy and fairness in our reporting. If you believe we have made a misstatement or error in one of our articles, please email us at editors@berkeleyside.org. We will append a note to the story for all major corrections.

Do you want to contribute to Berkeleyside as a freelancer? We’ve put together a primer that clearly spells out our pay structure and gives details on what you should know before you send in your pitch. Learn more about contributing to Berkeleyside.

Berkeleyside, and its parent nonprofit organization Cityside, subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News, of which we are members.

Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to best serve the communities we report on and to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization

Editorial decisions are made by journalists and editors alone. Those employed in a non-editorial capacity at Cityside and our board of directors have no input into decisions made about what we report on, or how, at Berkeleyside.

Cityside maintains a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

Cityside accept donations, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

Cityside may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Cityside will make public all donors who give a total of $1,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards. If our board of directors deems a donation presents a conflict of interest with our work or will compromise our independence, we will not accept that donation.

Nonprofit newsrooms that are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News pledge to be transparent about the funding of their news operations and maintain editorial independence from all revenue sources to ensure news judgments are made in the interest of the communities they serve as journalists.

Read more about our policies at Cityside.

We receive frequent requests from other publishers, organizations, and individuals to reuse our photos. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions, and instructions:

Do I need permission to use Berkeleyside’s images?

Yes. The Berkeleyside’s images and historical archive images require copyright permission.

Personal use is not re-publication in any media format. When used, images must be correctly credited. Fees vary.

Only staff material from Cityside publications is potentially available for republication. If you are interested in the use of an image credited to anyone other our staff (see above), you will need to seek permission directly from the accredited photographer.

Are Berkeleyside photos copyrighted?

Yes, Berkeleyside’s photos are copyrighted and cannot be distributed, reproduced, displayed, or broadcasted without prior written permission and a copyright license from Cityside.

Contact our team by completing this form to request a photo license to reuse images and graphics. (We reserve the right, at our discretion, to deny requests for photo licensing.)

Berkeleyside Idea Makers, which ran from 2022 to 2024, was a quarterly events series celebrating Berkeley thinkers who are pushing boundaries. Berkeleyside Idea Makers evolved from Berkeleyside’s Uncharted: The Berkeley Festival of Ideas, the Bay Area’s first ideas festival, which ran from 2013 to 2018. Uncharted brought together some of the world’s great thinkers for two thrilling days of discussion, debate and workshops designed to engage and inspire. Questions about our events? Email Becki Couch-Alvarado at becki@citysidejournalism.org.

Email (preferred):editors@berkeleyside.org

News tips and story ideas: Use the tips form

Specific staff members: Find author bios and contact information on our About page and at the foot of each news story

Public safety:crime@berkeleyside.org

Food and drink: editors@eastbaynosh.org

Opinion and obituaries:editors@berkeleyside.org. Review our op-ed and obituary guidelines.

Sponsorships:Learn more about engaging with Berkeleyside readers.

Berkeleyside member questions: members@berkeleyside.org

— from their About page, fetched 2026-08-25.

Berkeleyside

In their words

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