I started hearing these rumors three weeks ago, and then, today, the Bay Citizen scooped itself, posting that Phil Bronstein would likely come in as CEO for the troubled Bay Citizen--and help it merge with California Watch and The Center for Investigative Reporting (disclosure: I consulted for CIR for a year).
This is one of those moves that is not only fiscally sound (merging two organizations each having annual budgets of over $3.4MM would surely result in economies of scale), it's editorially wise, since The Bay Citizen's problems all along have had to do with finding a unique voice and making good use of all their resources and people, and California Watch's issues have been not around a voice or content (they have some terrific editors), but around distribution.
Further, the story goes that folks like Bronstein and CIR's director, Robert Rosenthal, were instrumental in helping Warren Hellman shape his thinking before The Bay Citizen was launched, and that in fact, there was some surprise that Hellman formed the organization without CIR.
There's also the important cash flow fact, which is that while CIR has done a brilliant job raising money from both national and local foundations to support California Watch, some of its largest funders are now pulling back, both because o f a change in direction and because it is rare for a foundation to supply large funding for more than 3 years.
One interesting question is--what would the merge look like? With two organizations that both have reporting teams of more than 13 people each, a "reduction in force" would seem inevitable, even as efficiencies of scale would be valued.
I'd love to see this happen--there are some terrific people at both organizations--and the Bay area could use a broadly focused digital news voice that had the funds to do deep-dive investigative reporting--and partner with organizations like Oakland Local for more local coverage.

One of the best ways to approach a big project is to just start working on it. I've done a huge chunk of work for a client on metric for hyperlocal news sites and after getting the initial work done, put it aside for six weeks.  Next week, I am giving a webinar on the materials. I realized I was totally stressed about this paper and preso and that the only thing to do was spend a chunk of today working on it so my unreal fears could be replaced with real fears (or not).

After 5 hours, I've rewritten the big, clunky paper into something still long (25 pages) but very readable, planned out the webinar, and feel able to write the preso and spend no more than 2-3 hours on it. (This is a huge relief).  I also realized what the follow up project should be--and have plans to do a one-sheet on value and impact for my idea.

What else did I do today?
Work on Oakland Local
Write proposals for a panel and a workshop for Netroots Nation
File 2 FOIA requests
Play with the dog
Get photographed with my fabulous friends
Go out to dinner at Ninna with same friends
Hit the local hot tubbery with said friends
Play with the dog
Come home and talk about how to change the world with my super great housemate
Hit the interwebs

It was a really  productive day, and getting my big rock done makes me feel very calm.

In about ten days,editor Steve Fainru is leaving the Bay Citizen, just around the same time their CEO, Lisa Frazier, is departing. Has there ever been an organization whose benefactor--the recently deceased Warren Hellman--made sure there was millions in the bank--but whose entire leadership team has departed? (Original EIC Jon Weber left several months ago).

Rumor has it that the Bay Citizen's traffic numbers are not strong, and that the company is so focused on their deal with the New York Times that it's taken attention off building traffic to their web site. But as an organization--with a union, no less--that has more writers than just about any California non-profit (except for maybe California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting)--the whole situation is just plain strange.

(And of course, despite all the money raised, Hellman's death may have left large sources of future funding in limbo).

So, whither Bay Citizen? Are more consultants in the wings to take over or plan next steps?
This is such an unusual situation--it would be interesting to know.

OMFG, this is so funny—and so true. Well done, folks! Tom Conrad/Kaie Imbach, more, more!

I had a blast reading The Raid on AOL: How Vox Pillaged Engadget And Founded An Empire
by Kevin Lincoln. As a former AOLer who worked closely with Jim Bankoff back in the day, this account rings true on so many levels.

But I was also thrilled to learn that SB Nation, Bankoff's company, has Oakland, CA roots--turns out SB Nation was a side project started by Markos of Daily Kos and his friend Tyler Bleszinski. Lincoln writes, looking back to the 2003-2005 era:

"Unhappy with how his favorite team, the Oakland A's, was being covered - and inspired by the cerebral sabermetrics of A's manager Billy Beane, as chronicled in Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball" - Bleszinski decided to start Athletics Nation. He corrected what he saw as the mistakes of other baseball writers by doing away with the veil of objectivity, which he believes is a myth in sports media coverage. He proudly displayed his pro-A's bias and covered the team obsessively, 24/7, and particularly in the offseason."

And from that..magic--and a growing company that's launching all sorts of big media-and a terrific, well-researched piece on AOL, Vox and how things came to be,

The fine and often cloudy line between big corporate media and grassroots community media came into sharp focus this week in Oakland, when the Bay Area News Group, now managed by Digital First and promising a new focus on all things community, issued a cease and desist letter to The Occupied Oakland Tribune, a volunteer effort from the Occupy Oakland movement.  I covered this story for my independent Oakland news non-profit, Oakland Local--and though it just said so much about where big media is today. (Alert: opinions follow).

Corporations need to protect their trademarks.  Without a creative commons license, legal counsel at BANG surely felt they had to protect their trademark or risk diluting it. Ergo, C&d to the offenders, even if it's a grassroots, volunteer organization.

One group doesn't know what the other group is doing.  Who hasn't worked for a big company at some point where the interests of one department slap right up against the interests of another? Surely no one bothered to tell Digital First/ANG honchos John Paton, Jim Brady or Steve Buttry about this letter, and maybe not BANG's Randy Keith, either.

Is community media talk--or walk?  Can big newspapers stop seeing the community--and local media like Oakland Local or even OOT--as their competition and their enemies--and actually learn how to support independent voices? Let's say the *new* Trib is trying-or likes to say its trying--and then ask how far that perspective goes and how many legal,financial and policy decisions it informs--and what's just spin.

Unfortunately, if I worked at BANG in legal, I'd send that letter as well.  But if if worked at BANG in management, or at Digital First, I'd damn well want to make sure I heard--before it happened---about company plans that reached out in and affected grassroots community--so I wouldn't be in the embarassing position--as one BANG staffer called it--of hosting talks with Occupy folks with one group--and sending them cease and desist letters from another in the same company.

And I'd also tell my reporters to attribute their stories--like this one from the Trib, that doesn't even mention Oakland Local breaking this story DAYS before they ran theirs. DOH!!

My friend Steve Spiker was at a Code for America announcement in San Francisco today that triggered some strong feelings on his part. And he's right on.  Not only is Oakland--our town--right across the bridge from SF, we have tons of the CFA people living here. And yet...we're not, as a city, doing half of what SF is to support open data, live apps, etc.

Some of Steve's points that resonated with me:
"Many of our tech problems have been solved in other cities and all we need to to is pick from existing open sourced applications and implement them in our town."
And:

From my work here are a few quick areas that I've seen solutions for either out of CfA or in the Civic Commons:

• Contracting processes: currently a small business contract with the city for perhaps a few thousand dollars requires the business to complete approximately 12 different documents, from word docs to locked PDFs, so they must print them all and fill them out by hand, and then submit copies. I can only imagine the city process for recording and managing these various forms when they are received. Take a look at the SmartPDF work in SF for a powerful solution, or just make the effort to combine all these forms into a single, fill-able PDF at the very least, and one day perhaps implement web based forms?
• Adopt an Open311 system for calls for service. This platform, developed in SF and DC is an open source 311 system that has open connectors and a new public dashboard feature developed by CFA. Very powerful and no proprietary software required.
• Work with the county to build a unified property addressing system.
• Implement Classtalk.org across the OUSD and help our teachers keep in touch with their students via SMS - perfect for a community with low internet access at home!
• Implement ChangeByUs, a great new tool for community engagement and collaboration.
• Implement an OpenData policy and work with our tech community to build an OpenData portal for our city. Free up valuable city data to encourage innovation, engagement and new startups! We're doing this anyway, but it should be supported by our city!

Steve, you are so right.

"What is the personal genesis of self-empowerment? Are there invariable, atomic elements common among these experiences? If so, what is the most effective way to infuse the largest number of people with these positive experiences in a way that successfully engenders autonomous power for each given individual?  "
May May, maybemaimed.com, http://bit.ly/vPBkDP

Great post by May on his journey, asking some questions I want to think about as well:

Doing more with less: "It's all just stuff I don't need, distractions I can't afford, things I hardly used. The only reason I have them is because I was afraid of not having them, because I was made to believe I was supposed to have an apartment, with stuff, purchased using money from a job I don't like to make me feel better about having that job I never really even fucking wanted. And now, I'm not so afraid of that anymore."

Doing work that matters: "What is my career when I have achieved, for me, an unprecedented level of recognition after 8 long years of being in the workforce? What is my contribution to my own future, and to people like me who are still young children today?"

We make our own home inside us--or we don't: "Maybe I never had a home. Or maybe I ought not have defined "home" so narrowly."

I'm blogging again.
Or, I'm resolving to blog again, but actually meaning to do it.
Or, I'm just blogging again, dammnit.

Back in 2002/2003, when I started to blog, it was the coolest thing possible.
Two years ago, I was in the throes of a start-up (Oakland Local), and blogging seemed redundant with all the Twitter, Facebook, social media energy.

Here we are at 2012, and even with Tumblr (susanmernit.tumblr.com), Pinterest (just checking it out) and  Google Plus (profile here), there are still things I want to say that the blog seems the right format for. So here, we go.

Why blog?

• Social media is a bit like circling the drain unless you have some real content assets to share--or you like to chatter (and the short form is an art.)
• Tumblr is a magnificent reclipping and image/photo/video sharing service, among other things, but it doesn't feel like blog post land to me (tho if I didn't have a blog, I'd definitely have a tumblr first)
• Pinterest is ladies over 40 who like to do something tumblr-esque inside a walled garden.  It's the new Vox. m'thinks. (Cool, but not my focus.)

Who else is experiencing a revival  of interest in blogging? Anyone getting their words back?

It's almost 4 PM on December 31st and I'm already mentally using the new year on the checks I have to write. Last year was the first year I made resolutions I actually kept, and the two I made really did improve my life (one was sleep an hour more every day, and it seems to have pushed me from 6 to 7 hours of sleep on average each night, which is what I really need; the other was to go to the gym and do aerobics/a weight circuit and stretching 3X a week, and I have pretty much done that as well).
So, this year, I want to make more resolutions, and keep them all, so I am going to list them here so friends and family can check in and see if I am doing what I said I was going to do.  Here's a working list of personal resolves:

• Get a full baseline medical check up. (I HATE going to the doctor.)
• See my son once a month if possible, but not less often than every 6 weeks (because he is the most interesting person ever and I love him).
• More time for friends on a weekly basis (hear that, everyone--PLEASE invite me to do stuff and see you!)
• LOSE 30 pounds.  (Ouch! I have I would do this so many times that if I'd done it before, I would have disappeared by now, but I am going to put some strong focus and intention on doing this in a consistent and healthy way in 2012.)
• Be active every day. What can I add to that 3X a week gym routine that keeps me sweating and moving? and having fun?

I will post some work and career-related resolutions as well; going to sit with these for now.