About SFBay
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SFBay editors report and break news that matters. Some of the stories you read first on SFBay:
Contact SFBay: info@sfbay.ca tips@sfbay.ca
Welcome to SFBay! We are a locally-owned, home-grown, San Francisco Bay Area media startup.
One day we looked up and realized Bay Area media at every level was owned by out-of-town, mostly New York-based companies. The companies that control most of the “major” media outlets in the Bay Area are in fact headquartered just blocks from one another — in Midtown Manhattan.
Help SFBay change this dynamic by supporting locally-owned media companies. Our mission at SFBay is to build a fresh media brand in, of and from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our team of editors covers the Bay Area with original stories you won’t find anywhere else. SFBay also scours the Web for the best coverage of Bay Area news, sports, culture, events and more. We summarize, enhance and add value to stories from more than 100 Bay Area sources.
We hope we can count on your support as we work to carry out our mission.
Original images on SFBay are produced by SFBay photographers, who retain full copyright over their images. Other photography is reproduced under a Creative Commons or other open content license, or with the express permission of the original copyright holder.
SFBay.ca is a production of SFBay Media Associates LLC, all rights reserved.
SFBay Staff
- Miles Aquino
- Jerold Chinn, Transportation Editor
- Robert Cartagena
- Jesse D. Garnier, Editor
- Kerry Freyne
- Chelena Goldman
- Ken Heiman
- Stephen Lam
- Heather Mack
- Victoria Nguyen
- Ryan Leong, Sports Editor
- Cristina Ramos
- Sean Reichhold
- Kevin Skahan
- Matthew Stensland-Bos
- Ali Thanawalla
- Sarah Todd
- Megan Taros
- Natalie Thomas
- Scot Tucker, Director of Photography
- Godofredo Vasquez
SFBay Correspondents
- Walter Crasshole, Berlin
- Marina Forte, New York
- Jessica Kwong, Los Angeles
Founder & CEO
- Jesse D. Garnier
Co-Founders
- Miles Aquino
- Scot Tucker
- Robert Hernandez
- Gerhard Stochl
- Andreas Tzortzis
Consultants+
- Sean Connelley
- Katy Newton
Thank you
Special thanks to Scott Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Kathryn Tam, Joe Shoulak, David Cohn, Suzanne Yada, Chris Mascari, Andrew DeVigal, Tasha Cain, Dottie Katzeff, Eva Martinez, Charlie Winfield, Gerri McGlone, Ben Schein, Sonia Fuentes, Neale Kavanagh, Lovina Aquino, Kevin Wagner, Payton Wagner, Tonee Aquino, Julio Villanueva, Miranda Bettencourt, Jordi Olivella, Shea Shawnson, Stephen Lam, Greg Hager, Tracy Hager, Sabrina Hager, MariNaomi, Jon Funabiki, Venise Wagner, Jason Ables, Kerry Annef, Max Garrone, Matthew Brunwasser and the countless other friends who did small things and made small sacrifices for this effort.
(c) 2011-2013 SFBay Media Associates LLC. All Rights Reserved.
SFBay Media Associates LLC. 77 Chula Lane, San Francisco, CA 94114
(855) SFBAY-CA (415) 889-8895
hey guys. did you know that san francisco charges 70% more than the next city on the list in terms of ambulance cost? check out the bar chart here.
ambulancesuckersf.tumblr.com
it’s not cool, and it’s maybe not within the guidelines of the law.
Thanks, feel free to send news tips to tips@sfbay.ca. Thanks!
You have local sports coverage now :)
So… I’m confused. This is supposed to add value?
I feel like aggregation is fine as long as you add something original to the reporting. I mean, your page says “We summarize, enhance and link to stories from more than 100 Bay Area sources.”
But I don’t see any enhancing anywhere on this site. I mean the stories are well written, but most of them are just summarizing what other reporters have worked on without giving me any added value.
And the links are not that noticeable. Kinda feels like you want to take credit for stuff you didn’t do.
@alanitalian53: Thanks for the frank feedback.
SFBay editors are directed to aggressively seek out multiple sources to add information, context or perspective. Here are a few quick examples in the last two weeks:
http://sfbay.ca/2012/06/08/ansel-adams-message-in-a-bottle/
http://sfbay.ca/2012/06/05/tombstones-wash-up-on-ocean-beach/
http://sfbay.ca/2012/06/18/golden-gate-safety-barrier-just-down-the-road/
http://sfbay.ca/2012/06/12/rural-meth-crisis-lurks-close-to-home/
http://sfbay.ca/2012/06/07/witness-accounts-dominate-stow-hearing/
In enhancing these stories, SFBay secured online publication rights for an SFBay-edited selection of Ansel Adams’ Fiat Lux images, and brought together nearly a dozen links to original source material (and once again secured photo rights) on the tombstones story. The other links are a small selection of SFBay stories compiled from sources linked from within the text.
Do all of our stories contain the same level of enhancement? No. Are all of our stories perfect and maximally enhanced at every opportunity? No. But I can tell you that’s the goal and we’re working on it every single day.
As for our links, we link directly to the principal source in 18pt bold all caps at the beginning and the end of all of our stories with a big “SOURCE:” label. We attribute direct quotes in the body of the story to the news organization that collected them.
Inline in the story body, we’ve experimented with a few different link styles, and I’d expect to experiment some more. I will tell you we’ve got enhancements planned that will make it much easier — at a glance, really — to see exactly which sources we’ve brought together for a story. Say, perhaps in the sidebar.
It’s our intent at SFBay to give credit, not to take credit. Our readers *do* click on source links, which we seek to display clearly and without obfuscation.
Thanks again for your comments.
Howdy from Reddit. Thanks for the better clarification on “who ya’ll are” and “what you do.”
Hope to see legitimate submissions into our custom-established queue. Or adios, see you around — I’m actually a nice guy in person. About 9000 people in the bay area agree, so… sorry we got off so rough.
But I still stand by growing a pair, at least when you venture online =D
I tolerated a lot of insults and name-calling from you on our private Reddit thread. I’m not going to allow any more of that here.
I stand behind our business model and our work.
So that said – let me give you some free advice/consultation, take from it what you will:
I’ll tell you that you’ll be met with a lot of skepticism from the reddit community. You are not the first blog-type site looking to cash in on social media and the large portion of redditors driving the direction of reddit will probably meet you with a bit of hostility. Redditors are a very fickle crowd and if you give them any reason to think you’re using them for profit, they will backlash on you so hard that your head will spin. Do not ever give redditors a reason to label you as scum.
I don’t know if your goal is to use reddit to drive views at all. Keep in mind that most of the stories that make it big on reddit are original content. People don’t like reposts unless they’re stupid memes or jokes. Your blog stories and reports will be seen as reposts on reddit, but worse, they will be seen as trying to cash in on the craze and this will be very transparent to the redditors in the /new queue, the ones that you have to get past to make it to the big numbers (of which I used to be a part of when I had more free time).
I know you noticed, but nobody cares about your site right now. If you want to grab readership, you’ll have to do it by producing good content, you can’t just sell the idea of it and expect it to motivate redditors to keep coming back.
I create huge social networks myself, ReidUH. And I think that the more traffic is driven to Reddit, than so be it. I think these kinds of comments are harmful to anyone else who would check out Reddit, and when outsiders see this kind of position being taken, they don’t want to open an account thereupon. Who would want to go and be a part of something that is so closed minded? The site is no better or worse than any other blog, microblog, or news source.
I read this thread twice, and I think there are some pretty arrogant words thrown around. Especially in light of the fact that there are hundreds of other blog networks a person can participate in.
I Tweet at @ProNetworkBuild
great site, best of luck. One suggestion: it would be better if the ads opened in a new window rather than replacing the page it’s on. And how about an iPad app?
I wonder about this kind of aggregation. Original publications probably don’t see a nickel from this, correct? It’s barely fair use.
Thanks for your opinion.
The hyperlink is the cornerstone of the Web. It’s one of the things which makes the medium unique.
SFBay always links directly to original articles with full attribution, and has rights to or obtains permission to republish images with our stories.
SFBay users *do* click on links and *do* read original stories. In this way we drive traffic to the original publisher, which they are free to monetize to the best of their ability.
Our stories at SFBay are curated, written and edited by actual human beings. We add value via our story selection and our enhanced summaries.
Here’s a quote from a Columbia Journalism Review article regarding content aggregation:
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/jim_romenesko_leaves_poynter.php?page=all
“The practice of stopping to say things in your own words isn’t just an obsolete ideal imposed on journalists by reactionaries and pedants. Having to consider and articulate things for yourself leads to better comprehension of the source material and, subsequently, better analysis. Sure, if your job is content aggregation, you might not have much space to work with. But there’s a lot you can do in a little space. The words you choose can convey analysis, emphasis, skepticism, humor. You can use your close reading of the text to improve others’ understanding of it. You can offer criticism, or comparative analysis. If you’re not going to do that, well, then just give a link and let the people who did the work the first time tell the story. “
I have stated following you from Spain.
Congratulations to you all. Great job.
Besos Nines
Muchas gracias, Nines. We appreciate the camaraderie from our Spanish friends. Olé!
Great site with good content. I am anxious to see it grow. We live in arguably the best area in the world and I love the fact that the site concentrates just on the Bay Area.
Would love it if you would consider adding a section that just focuses on environmental content. New products, new green firms, even the green business encubator Mayor Lee is so excited about.
I know, you probably already have a long list of ideas of where you want the site to go. Just food for thought from a tre hugging right winger.
Great site! Well done. Concise.
Wishing all of you, all the best in this endeavor!
What a cool magazine! Great writing and articles.
Thank you, John! You’ve been an excellent supporter of SFBay.ca. We look forward to bringing you and our readers more value in the Bay Area soon.
Hi All,
Your site is fantastic! A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Miles, Jesse and co-founders.
From a ship “somewhere” in Israel, I wish y’all years and years and years…. of great success
Kerry
Hi folks,
I really love the site. It’s wondertfully readable, great story choices, and fab pics.
Here’s wishing you all success for many years to come.
Nancy
SI SE PUEDE!
Love the site. However, could you please expand the stories more? I wanted to read more about Pat Burrell being kicked to the curb.
Otherwise, awesome articles.
Hi Tonee — thanks for the feedback!
At SFBay, we aggregate stories from more than 100 local sources: Newspapers, broadcast stations, blogs, community sites, and more.
Most of our articles are summaries of aggregated content, along with selected excerpts or other enhancements. These summaries are intended to be brief overviews.
We always include a “Source” link with all of our stories, which names the original publication and links to the original article. Usually this is the easiest way to learn more.
As for Pat Burrell, he’s old, his contract ran out, and his foot is basically shot. Plus he says himself he doesn’t think he can play anymore. And that makes him sad. Us too. You too, probably.
Hope you enjoy the site!
Enlightening! Bravo……
Fun and informative site. Love it!!!