Former Reporters Now Give Away Their Expertise for Free

It’s been about two years since wide-scale layoffs started at Bay Area newspapers. Sadly, the trend is continuing, as the Chronicle plans to layoff about 150 more reporters and editors in April.

But the newspapers’ loss has been the web’s gain. At least a dozen former reporters have transferred their expertise to the Internet, creating a lively, if diffuse, way to figure out what is going on in California. There are websites and blogs about politics, food, radio, books, and fashion.

This is what everyone is predicting as the future of the news business. Instead of centralized, organized news gathering, there will be a cluster of sites run by “citizen journalists” out in the world gathering information. Well, the future is now in the Bay Area, and it’s interesting to see what’s going one. While these sites are entertaining, none are breaking any news – or doing investigative reporting. And it’s unclear how these reporters are making any money, let along a living running these sites.

Here is how the Bay Area’s former best and brightest reporters are spending their time:

Jerry Roberts, a former Chronicle editor, and Phil Trounstine, a former political reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, have started Calbuzz, a blog about California politics. It’s full of hard and soft news, such as this entry about former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s 75^th birthday bash in Paris, as well as a cogent analysis why Senator Dianne Feinstein won’t run for governor.

Louis Freedberg, a former Chronicle editorial writer, launched the California Media Collaborative,

which aims to improve coverage of issues in California.

Catherine Bigelow, the former society columnist for the Chronicle, is in Paris with Brown, tweeting about her experiences as well as collecting information for the magazine 7 X 7.

Eve Batey, whom the Chronicle hired as their Deputy Manger for Online in 2007, has just launched the San Francisco Appeal, a website that covers news, politics and culture in the SFist style. (Read: short, fun, and full of graphics) The founding team also includes former Chronicle and Examiner reporter Chuck Finnie and former Chronicle staffer Tim Ehhalt.

Former Mercury News reporter Brad Kava started a blog about radio when he was laid off from the paper in 2007 and it has been so successful he just moved it over to the Examiner website.

Carolyn Jung, the former food editor of the Mercury News, has a great food blog called Food Gal.

Aleta Watson, also a former food writer for the Mercury News, has a cooking blog called The Skillet Chronicles.

Charles Matthews, a former book critic for the Mercury News, has a blog on books and culture.

Joanne Jacobs, a former columnist for Knight Ridder, has a blog on education.

Michele (Marcucci) Ellson, a former reporter for the Oakland Tribune and MediaNews, now runs a news site called The Island, which covers Alameda in the East Bay. The site, started in February 2008, is currently drawing about 200 to 300 visitors a day. Here’s an interview with her from the San Francisco-Peninsula Press Club blog.

Of course, the majority of the former reporters are freelancing, working in other news organizations, or at places like Stanford News Service, UC Boalt School of Law, and as communications directors for politicians and non-profits.