Our Vision

The Public Press is positioned to address these disturbing trends in the industry as part of a media initiative that will produce the first truly noncommercial general-interest daily web/print newspaper.

As a social venture, it will sustain itself by mixing philanthropy (from foundations, generous individuals and reader pledges) with subscription revenue and newsstand sales. Building an alternative business model will sidestep the financial turbulence and anemic print advertising revenues now punishing the commercial press.

Without advertising, the newspaper will use less than half the newsprint of a traditional daily, making it more portable and easier to read, and making the press run faster. It will employ a cutting-edge design and reader-friendly web-inspired organization, including comprehensive front-page indexing and user-generated commentary judiciously mixed into news sections of the print edition.

The Public Press will also draw lessons from the information architecture revolution that started in Silicon Valley, creating innovative, dynamic news exchanges between the web, mobile delivery and print platforms. A multi-platform publishing approach will sidestep some of the technological impediments facing existing newspapers, which waste time and energy manually moving news from one system to another.


We envision a new type of local news organization that is accountable to its member-subscribers, who will be invited to participate in decisions about news coverage priorities. This public engagement may come in the form of a community advisory board, public meetings and online forums.

A
 staff 
of
 professional
 journalists
 will
 cover
 public 
policy
 and
 social
 trends,
 with
 an
 emphasis
 on
 areas
 that are neglected
 or
 under‐reported 
by 
the 
commercial
 press:


• consumer 
prices/quality

• wealth
 and 
poverty

• public
 transit

• rental
 housing

• land‐use
 planning

• science

• environment

• public
 health

• major 
and 
third‐party
 politics

• race
 and
 demographics

• primary
 through 
higher 
education

• labor
 and
 employment
 trends

• media
 accountability
• cultural
 and
 language 
diversity

• prisons

• public
 infrastructure

• independent
 arts
• local
 history


While
 The 
Public 
Press
 will
 not 
be
 an
 advocacy
 publication,
 it 
will 
actively 
solicit
 opinion
 from 
diverse
 viewpoints.
 National
 and 
international
 coverage
 will
 stress 
on‐the‐ground
 reporting 
from
 multiple
 perspectives
 —
not
 just
 that
 of 
The
 Associated 
Press. 
The
 paper
 will
 make
 room
 for
 this 
enhanced
 coverage 
by 
eschewing 
luxury
 lifestyle,
 the
 political 
horse race 
and 
emotion‐laden 
crimes
 and 
accidents
 that 
don’t
 illuminate 
larger
 trends.


As Bay Area voters are increasingly asked to vote on complex ballot propositions to decide billion-dollar questions, The Public Press is an effort to re-knit the fabric of one community frayed by a weakened journalism tradition. By prioritizing aggressive coverage of public policy, we hope to spark a renewed local interest in voting, volunteerism and civic engagement.

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