Can Backfence as a hyperlocal Bayosphere patch Silicon Valley's community newshole?

Technorati Tags: Backfence Bayosphere Dan Gillmor Mercury News 

Answer: I hope so. And I never thought I'd say this, but the future of Silicon Valley community journalism could take a tip from our snarky new gossip columnist. Full disclosure: I'm on the advisory board for the Center for Citizen Media.

Here's what I'm on about: I'm very glad to read Dan Gillmor's announcement that Bayosphere, the San Francisco Bay Area citizen journalism site he founded last year with Michael Goff, has "come under the wing" of Backfence. Dan reports that Bayosphere, guided by Backfence, is preparing to go hyperlocal with a site devoted to Silicon Valley's epicenter, Palo Alto. I've been a fan of the Bayosphere project from the beginning, and while I respect Dan's decision to move on to academia, I believe the Bay Area needs and will ultimately develop a regional citizen journalism site that can support some of the business ideas he and Michael had. I pledge to remember that and bring it up again in five years when someone proves them right.

As a long-suffering member of the Silicon Valley/Palo Alto media audience, however, I am going to take advantage of Dan's request for recommendations and offer up one now to Backfence leaders Susan DeFife and Mark Potts: Read Valleywag today. Nick's expertise may be snark, but he does have one good piece of editorial advice -- even as he proves he doesn't get life in the valley for those of us trapped with and without kids between SOMA and the Sharks. But, hey, it's all data.

Here's what I'm on about: In the press release, Backfence CEO Susan DeFife says,

"Backfence provides local community members with a vital gathering place for local information and discussion that's not available anywhere else."

To which Nick snaps via Valleywag:

"Except, of course, for the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News (well, until it dies), SFist, Metroblogging SF, Craigslist, Craig Newmark and Jeff Jarvis's upcoming site, local blogs, Upcoming.org, Laughing Squid, and every restaurant, cafe, conference room, college campus, and office in the Valley."

Wrong. Brilliant though they are, hipster guide Laughing Squid and want-ads-to-my-life Craigslist can't and don't try to hold a candle to SFist for local news. And it irritates me beyond measure to read SFist anyhoo because I'm jealous that they're not writing about my zip code. As for The San Jose Mercury News or SFGate? Oh please. Welcome to Silicon Valley's not-so-secret tradition, one that dates back to before the boom, extended through the bust and lives right up to today's economic resurrection: Daily media coverage of Silicon Valley life by newspapers that should know better is surprisingly superficial, even amateur.

That's not news to us locals. Daily local newspaper coverage about life in the 'hoods and tony 'burbs of the San Francisco Peninsula has been sub-par since I first rented the pool house of a Palo Alto mansion in 1991. Why? Because Silicon Valley's daily life has been the Cinderella of Bay Area media, demographically used to pad advertising budgets, but editorially neglected as two dailies focus primarily on urban San Francisco and exploding San Jose. In other words, the social community has always been here -- but the daily news media weren't.

To supplement our news appetites, the overly educated and overly paid citizens of the valley have turned public radio station KQED into the most popular drive-time news in the country. Because other than our pristine weekly newspapers, we got nada.We lean on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for a lifeline, and use Craigslist to date and to furnish our homes via the best garage sales in nine counties (I'm talking about a hundred bucks for an antique oriental rug from an Atherton garage sale, people). And now that CNET, Slashdot, Wired, BoingBoing and a host of other sites cover our employers better than any traditional news organization, we feel the attention deficit less.

It wasn't always this way. Once upon a time we had the Peninsula Times Tribune, a fantastic and award-winning union newspaper, which tanked in 1993 when The Tribune Company sold it. Immediately the San Francisco Chronicle and The San Jose Mercury News began a bidding war for local coverage, which the Merc nearly won by opening a brass-lettered bureau blocks from Bill Hewlett's and Dave Packard's fabled garage. The Merc's technology coverage was kickin, but save for excellent columnists (Local's Loretta Green, Lifestyle's Sue Hutchison), Knight Ridder didn't invest long-term in enough local coverage for the Merc to truly claim the zone. (Don't take my word for it, take his.)

Last year the Merc bought a fledgling daily, but now it and the Merc are on the block, its editor has been fired and the community is in hiatus again. As for the other paper, as Resident Andrew Freedman says "The S. F. Chronical [sic] never stepped in (and it still hasn't)." Too true -- The Comical, as it was known throughout the '90s, had none of today's lovely muscle in print or online. In those years, Hearst used Herb Caen's society column and the weekend Datebook to sell gussied up AP wire stories. Classic birdcage liner.

To make matters worse for those of us trying to live here, commute here, vote here and be party people once in a blue moon when we get a sitter, we also at this point don't have brilliant local news blogs either. Probably because we're all working so hard to afford the area's outrageous mortgages and rents. But when we find a niche, we know what to do with it: Check out The Parents' Club of Palo Alto and Menlo Park, which I believe began as an email chain. Or the MidPeninsula Open Space District.

Take a good look at those sites. Slick. Sophisticated. Unique. Opinionated. These folks have brains and budgets. Which leads me to point out what Valleywag/Nick gets right. He writes of Backfence, "the community journo site where every writer's a "neighbor" -- I think that translates as "comrade"." He's got a point -- and while this sense of a neighborly club works in Bethesda, I'm not sure it'll fly in the zip codes that gave us both Tivo and Adult FriendFinder. Here's a sample of what Nick's on about, in a great piece of hyperlocal citizen journalism I copied from Backfence's Bethesda site and highlighted in red:

Study: 495-270 Bottleneck Among the Worst in the Nation

A study prepared for the Federal Highway Administration shows that the 495-270 interchange is the seventh worst traffic bottleneck in the country, which is no surprise to anyone who's ever crawled through there at rush hour. Read more.

News: Posted by your neighbor, Backfence Brett; updated 04/17; comments (1)

What do you think?

See what I mean? Picture the t-shirt.

So, post-rant, here are my recommendations for Bayosphere and Backfence:

First, pick the brains and sites of Barry Parr, creator of Half Moon Bay's Coastsider, and Jarah Euston, founder of  Fresno Famous. They are the left-coast's hyper-local news blog and social community rock stars.

Second, kick-start your sites by partnering up with the parents in your audience. The great divide in Peninsula society is sometimes gender -- but more often than not, it's parenthood. Figuring out a way to pay for shelter, food and school-related activities is a very big deal in this part of the world, where the average home price is prohibitive. Help us network, since we're reinventing the wheels ourselves, sometimes with every child.

Third, think globally, act locally. Urdu. Spanish. Vietnamese. Portuguese. Chinese dialects. The Bay Area is home to extraordinary ex-pat communities with thriving economies, Web addictions and no daily local coverage -- in English or languages spoken at home. Audio!

Fourth, if you're launching in May, it may be too late to say this, but I hope there's an opportunity for local flavor and authenticity to influence your branding and national traditions.You've got a good start on service leadership with your ads to the community on this page...and you might start with people who have been with this community through every newspaper gyration, such as Mesdames Green and Hutchison. Update: And expect other talent to take Susan Mernit's advice.

As you dig in to the community, I think you'll find that I'm just one of many people who would like to see you succeed.

Updated: More coverage by The Bay Area is Talking, Michael Goff, BusinessWeek, The Blogging Times

Comments

[SFist Mary-Lynn]

The lack of SFist coverage of points south of San Francisco is actually my own fault. I live down here and I've been hoping to do more of it this year but am having a really hard time finding the pulse of this place in any way that I think would be interesting to our readers. Backfence/Bayosphere may actually fill a very specific niche - one on a much smaller scale than we'd do at the 'Fist even. I've always wondered what happened to local community portals - the niche that should/could probably exist between the city council/school board and the hometown newspaper with some very specific classifieds thrown in - why did they never go anywhere?

I also think they could be very successful because people are VERY concerned about their own town here but not always what's going on next door (short of what new restaurants are opening) and at the same time they could easily fail on the scale of trying to create a "Silicon Valley"-sized model. The main thing that ties these communities together is industry but that's already well-covered elsewhere.

[Barry Parr]

You're right on target about the failure of the local metros to cover the communities north of San Jose and south of San Francisco. Each town represents a huge opportunity that is only beginning to be plumbed.

The Merc's coverage of Silicon Valley has always been anemic and boosterish. The Chron dominates northern San Mateo County is a fashion that they in no way deserve. And communities from Santa Clara in the south to Daly City in the north are not getting the coverage that they deserve. There are more than a dozen communities on the peninsula that would have their own dailies and radio stations if they were located further from the Chron/Merc sphere of influence and outside the broadcast footprint of Twin Peaks.

Personal note: Actually, the Backfence folks have been trying to meet with me for about a month. I've been out of town every time they're in the Bay Area.

[enoch choi]

I've been in PAMP (the parents club u mention) for 4 years, and now serve on their Board of Directors. Our 2400 member families don't want to participate in citizen journalism. They want to communicate with each other in a private space where they feel comfortable emailing their phone #s and addresses. Some members do a group blog:
http://svmomblog.typepad.com

[Lisa Stone]

Hi everyone - sorry, had such a crazy week that I haven't been able to respond until now!

Mary-Lynn, SFist is terrific. I don't see how you can carry an entire peninsula solo, however, so don't be too hard on yourself! I agree that industry is one deep and abiding tie in these communities -- for myself I'd also have to add a zillion other topics, from child care, to the coexistence of bicyclists and motorists, to free wireless. Now that the boom/bust cycle has calmed and people who live here are no longer experiencing a crush of new residents or a mass exodus, the timing seems good. I think you're right that hyperlocal is the way for Backfence to go.

[Lisa Stone]

Barry, I am really glad to hear it! And as someone who now lives on the coast, thank you so much for all the work you're doing to chronicle this decade's closure of Devil's Slide. You are a household name and your blog is breakfast table reading.

[Lisa Stone]

Hi enoch,

Thanks for commenting -- Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that Backfence partner with PAMP. I offer up a link to your excellent site as an example of the Web sophistication, personal priorities and ethic of people who live and work in the mid-peninsula. Anyone who covers this area needs to "get" us parents!

And yes, the SV Mom Blog is super. I recommend it.