Cityside, the nonprofit publisher of Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside, announced the launch today of its third local news outlet, Richmondside, which was created to serve the residents of Richmond, a city of 116,000 in the East Bay.
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As with all Cityside newsrooms, Richmondside’s goal is to provide all of the diverse communities within the city it serves with free, trustworthy news that informs, fosters civic participation and strengthens democracy.
The launch comes after many months of research and a deep listening program that involved hearing from hundreds of Richmond residents. Richmondside’s journalism and its values are informed by the feedback we heard during that continuing process.
Through surveys and in-person interviews, Richmonders told us they want a local news organization that’s unbiased, balanced and accurate. They shared which issues were important to them — things like local government transparency, housing, and schools. And, very much like the listening sessions conducted in Oakland before the launch of Oaklandside, people in Richmond said they don’t just want to hear bad things about their city; they want to see positive coverage about the many people and groups in Richmond who are working hard every day to improve life in the city and make it an enjoyable place to be.
Richmondside’s newsroom is led by founding Editor-in-Chief Kari Hulac, a longtime Bay Area journalist and an East Bay reporter and editor for 13 years. Hulac held several editorial leadership positions at the Bay Area News Group between 1997 and 2010, including as the editor of The (Hayward) Daily Review and features editor of The Oakland Tribune. She was a senior editor based in the East Bay at local online news network Patch, and a breaking news editor at Bay City News.
Joining her is staff reporter Joel Umanzor, a Richmond local who previously worked at the SF Standard and the San Francisco Chronicle. The launch team is rounded out by two summer reporting interns from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism: Holly McDede and David Moreno.
Richmondside’s launch stories include a City Council explainer to help residents better understand and participate in local government, a report on the impacts of school district budget cuts on vulnerable high schoolers, and a profile of a Richmond muralist whose latest artwork honors the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while beautifying a local school.
Richmondside is supported by funding from Google News Initiative, the American Journalism Project, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Hellman Foundation, the Lesher Foundation, as well as individual supporters.
“It’s exciting to launch Richmondside to extend our Cityside model of providing civic-minded news to underserved communities,” said Cityside CEO Lance Knobel. “In the central Cityside team we have resources and expertise around fundraising, membership, audience, advertising, events, and product that enable us to support our three newsrooms.”
