Community Funded Reporting
SF Appeal  |  16 Jul 2009

Independent City Hall Reporting



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Do you like sitting through hours of public testimony? How about digging through public documents? Does reading 80-page legislative packages get you going?

It isn’t always fun, and it certainly isn’t sexy (have you ever met a reporter?) but it’s certainly necessary. Behind the hours of talk, the posturing and the preening of city officials are consequences: real consequences that affect the way you work, the way you eat and the way you live. The SF Appeal's goal is to bring those consequences to light in an informative way that is relevant to you. Yes, you, the one who cares.

Appeal reporter Chris Roberts has been attending nearly every SF Board of Supervisors meeting for over a year, and ones he can’t make to he's been watching on SFGTV or reading the transcripts.

All Roberts's work will be published on the San Francisco Appeal, an independent, locally owned news and culture website.  You can follow all his work here. He'll also give blog updates on this pitch page.

Every time we raise $200 he will do a debriefing on what he's learned along the road.  In addition, he'll do a radio interview with Spot.Us that explains some of the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in his reporting - the stories behind the stories.

How will it help?

Coverage of City Hall is waning. And these meetings result in real world consequences. If we want to stay informed we either all have to start attending - or Chris can attend for you and summarize what is happening in fun bit sized chunks. But to continue doing so, he needs your support.




Chris Roberts has worked in journalism since 2004 as a news reporter, photographer, freelance writer, columnist, sports editor and music critic. It’s been the way he's made his daily bread since October 2005. Along the way he's had a story picked up by the Associated Press, had his work featured on a Gawker Media blog, but nowhere has he worked harder and found more joy than when he's covered local city government here in San Francisco. How much does he love it? The week after he was laid off from his newspaper job in late March, he was back at City Hall (working online, working for free).
We don't see a termination point for this beat. As it continues, we'll reup the donation amount so Chris can continue to get paid for his work. Chris will contribute as often as possible — with the hope of averaging at least one 400-word story a day, with multiple shorter 200 or 300-word briefs daily — to the SF Appeal. He will provide occasional updates to the Spot.Us supporters as well about his experience reporting. Every time we raise $200 he will do a debriefing on what he's learned along the road. In addition, he'll do a radio interview with Spot.Us that explains some of the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in his reporting - the stories behind the stories and talk about the stories that he didn’t pursue.
Sfa Author
SF Appeal
This story has been published:

Independent City Hall Reporting

by SF Appeal | 22 Sep 2009 | sfbay
Chris Roberts has been one of the more independent reporters here at Spot.Us. His tenacity produced the stories below, each a golden nugget of city insight. None of this would have been possible without editorial support from SF Appeal and of course the Spot.Us community members who donated.    Listen to an audio interview with the reporter. What Recession? Jury Awards Pre-recession Sale Price In Hugo Hotel Eminent Domain Suit.   As real estate aficionados may know, the San Francisco Redevelopment…
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Public Support

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