Berkeleyside is the independent, award-winning news site in Berkeley, California, reporting on Berkeley and the East Bay.
Readership
A pioneer in the field of online local journalism, Berkeleyside benefits from its large community of highly engaged readers. In 2019, Berkeleyside averaged more than 1 million pageviews and 360,000 unique visitors monthly.
Awards
In 2019, Berkeleyside founders Frances Dinkelspiel, Lance Knobel and Tracey Taylor were selected to receive the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal honoring members of the community in any field whose work has benefited the people of Berkeley. Also in 2019, reporter Natalie Orenstein was named a finalist in the Education Writers Association’s National Awards for Education Reporting.
In 2018, the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists honored Berkeleyside’s executive editor Frances Dinkelspiel with the 2018 Longform Storytelling award (in the print/online small division) for her article, One day, one night: The fuse that lit the Battles of Berkeley. Also in 2018, Berkeleyside was named Best Local Twitter Account in the East Bay Express Best of the East Bay 2018 awards.
In 2017, Berkeleyside was honored by the San Francisco Press Club, winning first-place awards in the digital media division for overall excellence, for breaking news, and for coverage of the November 2016 election, among other awards. Also in 2017, Berkeleyside Senior Reporter Emilie Raguso was named Journalist of the Year by the NorCal chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
In 2016, Berkeleyside won an Excellence in Journalism Award from SPJ NorCal for its comprehensive coverage of homelessness in Berkeley.
In 2015 Berkeleyside won Best Local Twitter Account in the East Bay from the East Bay Express.
In both 2013 and 2014, Berkeleyside was the winner of the SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism Award for Community Journalism.
Editorial independence
Berkeleyside retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of contributors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept contributions, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of that support.
Our organization may consider contributions to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous contributions for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization.
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- Twitter (@berkeleyside and @ebnosh)
- Instagram (Berkeleyside and East Bay Nosh)
- Facebook (Berkeleyside and East Bay Nosh)
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Our ideas festival
From 2013 to 2018, Berkeleyside produced the annual Uncharted: The Berkeley Festival of Ideas, the Bay Area’s first ideas festival. It brought together some of the world’s great thinkers for two thrilling days of discussion, debate and workshops designed to engage and inspire. Questions about the festival? Please email Uncharted founder and co-curator Lance Knobel at lance@berkeleyside.com.
Berkeleyside raised $1 million in capital from 355 of its readers, making it the first news site in the country to do a Direct Public Offering. The success of the DPO testified to Berkeleyside readers’ belief in the need for high-quality independent local journalism in their community. The funds enabled Berkeleyside, founded in 2009 by three veteran journalists, to make the site mobile friendly, hire an additional reporter, and augment its events and membership programs.“While Berkeleyside could have chased investment from more traditional financiers, there was something symbolically compelling about giving readers the opportunity to have a direct role in the site’s future,” 
Berkeleyside was honored for overall excellence by the San Francisco Press Club. The Berkeleyside team won first-place awards in the digital media division for overall excellence, for breaking news, for coverage of the November 2016 election, for Frances Dinkelspiel’s series on the Premier Cru scandal, for Emilie Raguso’s feature on an injured bicycle rider, and Alix Wall’s story on Rubicon Bakery, among other awards. 
Berkeleyside Senior Reporter Emilie Raguso was named 
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Seven years after three veteran journalists launched Berkeleyside, the independent news startup invited its readers to become shareholders through a 