The Bay Citizen, a non-profit news website dedicated to independent reporting on civic and community issues in the Bay Area, went live today. Berkeleyside is happy to announce that we are one of the site’s founding media partners.

The arrangement will see The Bay Citizen publishing selected Berkeleyside articles, such as the one today on the eagerly awaited Mark Twain autobiography coming out of UC Berkeley. The partnership will, we hope, help broaden Berkeleyside’s readership and build awareness of our site. The deal also allows us to be part of the bigger picture in terms of media coverage in the Bay Area at a time when the news industry is in a state of flux and innovative ventures are arising to create a changed media landscape.

The Bay Citizen (first known as the Bay Area News Project) was founded in January 2010 with a $5 million donation from the Hellman Family Foundation. [Full disclosure: Warren Hellman is a cousin of Berkeleyside co-founder Frances Dinkelspiel.] Berkeleyside is one of several local independent publishers who have partnered with The Bay Citizen. One of the reasons we created Berkeleyside was from a conviction that more sources for local news were desperately needed. So we are looking forward to collaborating with The Bay Citizen and helping a fellow local news venture.