I guess if Sheriff takes your picture, it’s going to make you look like a felon.  The picture at right is of my brand-new press card from the Sheriff Horsley’s office down in Redwood City.

I’ve been publishing Coastsider for nearly a year and I’ve generally been treated like any other news source by everyone I need to talk to.  With a few exceptions, people return my calls and are willing to talk to me, even when I’m reporting bad news. The folks at the Sheriff’s substation in Moss Beach, including Lieutenants Quinlan and Shiveley, have been helpful and responsive. They’ve treated me well, even when I was the first reporter (or photographer) on the scene at a murder in Moss Beach.

Generally, my Coastsider business card has been enough to make it clear that I’m more than just a gawker. Most recently, I rode on the press bus with the Review and County Times to the Devil’s Slide tunnel groundbreaking.

However, it also became clear that if I need to deal with the police or fire departments on the scene of breaking news, it would be useful to have press credentials.

I have had conversations with the police where I had to make it clear to them that I viewed their cooperation with me as First Amendment issue.  And you can imagine my reaction to the official who complained that I had an unfair advantage over the local weekly when it came to reporting breaking news. I will explain indignantly to anyone who’ll listen that police can’t be in the position of deciding who gets to be considered press. But I do understand that on the scene the last thing they want to do is to vet reporters.

This press card is a huge milestone for Coastsider and a genuine recognition of the impact we’re having in the community.

We’ve increased the number of sections on Coastsider from five (Community, Business, Fun, About Coastsider and Government) to twelve.

Over time, it became clear that most stories were getting dumped into the Community category. This new organization should make it easier to find what you’re looking for, follow issues over time, and to understand what Coastsider is about.

About Coastsider: Information about the site.

Business: Coastside businesses, including fishing and farming.

Community: People and organizations on the Coastside.

Environment: Open space, animals, plants, natural resources and natural history. Includes water and sewer districts, which have a big impact on the local environment. Also includes Peninsula
Open Space Trust and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Events: Organized events on the Coastside.

Government: News about the County Board of Supervisors, Half Moon Bay City Council, Midcoast
Community Council, and other agencies. Doesn’t include water and sewer, which are in Environment, and the school district, which is in schools. Planning has its own category.

Humor: It’s funny. Laugh.

Opinion: Editorials, letters to the editor, and guest columns.

Planning & Development: Local Coastal Plans, park planning, California Coastal Commission, roads,
Devil’s Slide tunnel. Wavecrest is included in this section, although most of the stories are environmental in nature right now.

Police & Fire: Crime and fires, mostly.

Recreation: Outdoor recreation, and some indoor as well.  This is an area I’d really like to expand if you’re interested in writing for Coastsider

Schools: Schools, the school board and its elections. Includes the middle school site, whether it’s at Wavecrest or somewhere else.

I’ve gone back and reclassified most of the stories from 2005 in order to populate the new sections.

We’ve added a link to each story that says "Email this story".  You can click on the link to email the story or just the headline, along with a personal message, to a friend. Please try it out and let us know how it works for you.

We’ve just added a sign-up form on the left column so readers can sign up to get email alerts when important news is posted to Coastsider. It’s the best way to make sure that you don’t miss any big stories as they happen on the Coastside.

Just enter your email address in the form and press "submit" to subcscribe to the list, or remove your name from it.  You can also get to the subscription page by clicking on this sentence.

Coastsider will be offering sponsorships of parts of our site. We’ve already added Coastside Net as a sponsor to the Headlines section on the left-hand side of the page. Right now, Coastsider’s sponsorships are in beta test.

We’ll make an announcment when sponsorships are generally available for sale. Email Barry Parr using the link on the top left of the page if you’re interested in being notified ahead of time.

I changed Coastsider’s templates this morning, caching some items on the page that were previously generated every time a page was loaded. The site is now loading a lot faster, at least for me.

A few readers have told me that Coastsider has been slow lately. Let me know if you’re getting better performance today, or whether you’re experiencing any problems.

Coastsider is featured in an article in New Voices, the community online journalism magazine at the J-Lab, a journalism lab at the University of Maryland College of Journalism. It might give you some insight into what we’re doing here. Among other things, Coastsider’s kind of a lab for me to work out my ideas about ultralocal journalism. There aren’t many sites that are doing what Coastsider does, and it’s starting to get some attention in the industry.

There are also a couple of quotes about Coastsider from Clay Lambert, Managing Editor at the HMB Review, though at least one is pretty badly mangled. But I’m responsible for the most surreal quote in the piece:

"Coastsider is never going to be a replacement for the paper," said the site’s owner, Barry Parr. "But I’m providing information you can’t get from them and providing it sooner."

That’s me—providing information you can’t get from the paper, and providing sooner than it doesn’t appear there. Or something like that.

Coastsider is not entirely objective. It’s mostly written and edited by a single person—and I have a point of view. One reason I started Coastsider was that I didn’t think my point of view was getting enough attention in the local media. And I knew like-minded people were looking for an alternative. The challenge is that it’s impossible to separate my roles as reporter, editor, publisher, and citizen.

One thing I’ve done to signal that I am writing as an individual is to write many news stories in the first person. I want you to understand that there is a person behind the stories you see here, and that he probably has an opinion about what’s being said.

The age of objectivity in journalism is over, according to Dan Gillmor, former the computer industry columnist for the Mercury News. Last month, Gillmor quit one of the best jobs in technology journalism to start a venture in grassroots journalism.

Dan has written an excellent piece on his blog called The End of Objectivity.

Objectivity is a construct of recent times. One reason for its rise in the journalism sphere has been the consolidation of newspapers and television into monopolies and oligopolies in the past half-century. If one voice overwhelms all the others, there is a public interest in playing stories as straight as possible—not favoring one side over the other (or others, to be more precise, as there are rarely just two sides to any issue).

This idea isn’t new. It has been circulating among journalists for years. Dan has done a good job of crystalizing the thinking behind it, and suggests replacing (or at least leavening) objectivity with four other journalistic values:

• Thoroughness: Do your research.
• Accuracy: Get the facts right.
• Fairness: Give everyone a chance to speak, but don’t necessarily accept every assertion as equally valid.
• Transparency: Make your conflicts clear and open your sources for inspection.

Those are good values and I strive for for them every day. I think I get it right most of the time. You have a right to expect thoroughness, accuracy, fairness, and transparency from Coastsider—and from the mainstream media as well.

You should hold me to these values. If you think I’ve slipped, let me know. You can send me a private email or correct me in a comment attached to any story.

There’s a storm brewing tonight. What better time to announce Coastsider has added weather for Montara? How much wetter and colder is Montara than the metropolis to the south?  Now you’ll know. We’re still working out some of the navigation details, but for now, you can access either weather page from the menu bar just below the "Coastsider" banner at the top of the page.

Keep dry.

Every year we hold a holiday party.  This year, in addition to inviting our old friends and the new ones we’ve made this year, we’re inviting you. If you’re a Coastsider reader, you’re invited to the Parrs’ annual holiday party. There will be the usual wine, champagne, desserts and light food, and we hope you’ll all be able to stop by and say hello.

The party will be this Saturday evening, December 18, at our home in Montara. We’ll be dressing up (nothing formal, shoes optional), but feel free to wear whatever makes you comfortable.

If you want to bring something, feel free to bring a drink, or goodie to add to the buffet, but nothing is really necessary but yourself.

To get an invitation and directions, send an email to [email protected]