The idea of a “small but mighty” newsroom is deeply ingrained in the mind of Kari Hulac, the editor-in-chief of Richmondside, a new independent, free, nonprofit online newsroom covering the city of Richmond, California, and the latest offering of the Cityside Journalism Initiative.
“We are very small but we have the small but mighty mentality I had growing up. That’s intentional,” she says. The team currently consists of Hulac and one other reporter, plus a team of eager freelancers who have helped Richmondside publish more than 100 articles in the publication’s first eight weeks.
“Our approach to covering Richmond has to be very measured, very specific, very thoughtful. We don’t have the resources to do every story in town. The way we decided even to found Richmondside was based on a community listening project. We spent about two years finalizing where the next site was going to be and that it was going to be Richmond,” she says. “Once we narrowed it down, we wanted to make sure the Richmond community wanted us there.”
Through a series of steps, including listener interviews, online surveys and community meetings, the team then narrowed down what coverage would be a priority among the residents of the city, adjacent to Berkeley and on the inner portion of San Francisco Bay.
The first pillar of coverage is city government, something that has fallen by the wayside as print newspapers in the Bay Area lost staffing and pulled back reporters to reassign them to other areas, Hulac says. “When we hired one full-time staffer, that would be that person’s role, covering city council. Richmond has a very active political community and a long history of that.”
The second priority was to utilize two full-time summer interns from UC Berkeley to help fill out their first few months. One student was tasked with creating a weekly arts and events calendar, helping to showcase the city’s liveliness. The other student began a series of small business profiles highlighting the vibrant and diverse local food scene while also drawing attention to organizations and establishments helping to provide access to healthier food in a place known for being a food desert.
But Richmondside is eager to dig into longer-term projects as well. Thanks to a grant from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, the newsroom has begun a project on the city’s air quality.
“We still have a Chevron refinery operating in Richmond for the foreseeable future,” Hulac says, and the first article in Richmondside’s series looked at the major sources of air pollution in the city. Chevron is the largest.
“It’s important to mention because of where Richmond is situated: the cross-section of two major interstates, a heavily used bridge and other commercial enterprises, a chemical company and a railway. It’s a perfect storm of air pollution,” she says. “We’re letting people know where it’s coming from, breaking down the history. We’re very concerned about the health impact on residents.”
The second story in the series focused on doctors who are treating an increasing number of children and adults who are developing breathing issues, especially asthma. The doctors have said they can no longer treat these conditions in their clinic alone.
“They’re becoming advocates for various laws and efforts to curtail the pollution. We’ll also publish a resource guide, because we try to be solutions-oriented too,” Hulac says.
Editor-in-chief Kari Hulac talks about Richmondside, the independent, free, nonprofit online news site that launched over the summer.
