The New York Times gets local with its Bay Area blog

October 21, 2009 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

bayarea_mainThe New York Times unveiled the online side of its local news initiative today with a new blog called The Bay Area.

The Times actually began its Bay Area-aimed publishing effort last Friday, with extra pages in the print edition highlighting local news. If you’re like me, however, you don’t get much news from print papers anymore, so the blog (which is supposed to “complement,” not replicate, the print edition) is our first real peek at what The Times has in mind. The idea is to reach local readers and advertisers without spending the money to build out a full news organization, by carrying stories from other publications. (Here in the Bay Area, the articles are currently being written by New York Times staffers, but The Times is reportedly in talks to shift the work to the in-development nonprofit news group involving public radio station KQED and the University of California, Berkeley.)

The Times is also preparing to launch a similar section in Chicago, with more cities to follow, presumably, if the experiment goes well.

So what is The Bay Area actually going to blog about? In the introductory post, Michelle Quinn writes, “Think of The Bay Area as a café with good coffee (or tea), comfortable armchairs and permission to talk to one’s neighbors, who are generally interesting and informed. Here, you’ll find conversations on the region’s politics, entertainment, crime, education and, of course, food.”

The top stories include a financial earnings roundup, a story about San Francisco’s new recycling laws, and a discussion of how marijuana laws affect a Walnut Creek cannabis club. There’s some original reporting, but also generous links to other sites, including small neighborhood blogs like Mission Local.

There’s also a widget showing the latest tweets from The Bay Area blog’s writers. Technologically, that’s not particularly novel, but it’s interesting to see it on this section of The Times, since it’s not included in Bits, The Times’ tech blog.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • Actually I'm not from Bay area but I read some comments from the residents living near Bay area. Most of them are very thankful about branching out of New York Times in their area. They can meet some new journalist and can even easily address some of their concerns. I have a friend living near The Bay and I asked her about the news and yes, she's excited too. I hope you can update us more about New York Times..