Mission Local is a bilingual local independent online news site that also publishes a semiannual printed paper that covers the Mission District of San Francisco.
Early history
Mission Local began as a
hyperlocal project of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism,
focusing on San Francisco's
Mission District.
As some of the mainstream newspapers in San Francisco were shrinking and downsizing, it was believed that local media sites might fill some of the holes in reporting that were being left.
The new media site was in fact also a new experiment in hyperlocal journalism.
With funding from the
Ford Foundation, it was launched in 2008, purposely aimed at covering the underserved neighborhood of the Mission.
Berkeley Professor Lydia Chavez was its founder.
It is one of the few
university projects that has been turned into a fully functioning community news site.
Many young journalists have worked and trained at this media news site.
And in 2009 it began translating all of its contents also into Spanish.
Local community news site
Mission Local covers all of the news from the Mission District,
trying to provide context to a story so a reader can get a full understanding of an issue or situation.
The news site has covered many stories on how
gentrification is affecting the Latino community in the Mission,
and it has even made attempts to lower the walls that often divide the Latino and tech community.
It writes stories that are in-depth, multi-faceted, and often issue-oriented.
It has also done investigative pieces, including one that led to a change in citywide restaurant policy.
It is grassroots oriented in its daily news writing and covering of feature stories.
The news site has connected itself to
social media, having a
Facebook page, a
Twitter account, and is on
Instagram. The news site also updates its news stories, often several times a day.
Becoming independent
In February 2014, it was announced by Edward Wasserman, the Dean of Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, that U.C. Berkeley would be disconnecting itself from Mission Local, seeing it now more as a business and "...something other than journalism
education."
Mission Local re-launched itself as a for-profit, independent local media site in the summer of 2014 under the executive editorship of Lydia Chavez.
It became a fiscally sponsored nonprofit in 2018, and its own nonprofit in 2022.
San Francisco Mission fire
On January 28, 2015, the 108-year-old building where Mission Local was located at 2588 Mission Street caught fire,
causing the loss of one life, leaving 58 homeless, and leaving the building destroyed by flames.
Their offices on the second floor sustained significant damage and almost everything was left unsalvageable.
Yet despite losing its offices to the flames, Mission Local continued to cover the fire extensively.
Coverage and semiannual distribution of newspaper
The online media site focuses on San Francisco's Mission District, covering a neighborhood with around 60,000 people in it.
Their online media site receives about 100,000 unique visitors a month.
And twice a year the site distributes 10,000 free, printed editions of
Mission Local as a newspaper.
Awards
In June 2009,
Mission Local won a
Webby Award for being the best student news site in the country.
In May 2010,
Mission Local won first place for Region from the Society of Professional Journalists on
How Clean Are San Francisco Restaurants? was a Finalist for Society of Professional Journalist's Mark of Excellence Award in the fall of 2010.
See also
-
Institute for Nonprofit News (member)
External links
