The Oaklandside is an independent nonprofit newsroom reporting on and serving Oakland, California. Our newsroom was founded in March 2020 as part of the Cityside Journalism Initiative’s network of East Bay newsrooms. Our mission is to amplify community voices, share the power of real information, and investigate systems, not just symptoms.
The Oaklandside has a loyal and engaged community of readers who visit our site, read our newsletters and follow us on social media. Each month, an average of 280,000 people read our reporting, and we average 550,000 pageviews a month.
The Oaklandside is guided by a set of founding values, which we developed after spending months asking Oaklanders about how local journalism can help make their daily lives better and build a more informed, more equitable city. You can learn more about that work and how we’re applying what we heard.
Our name, The Oaklandside, was chosen through a similar process of community listening with a wide and diverse range of Oakland residents, educators, artists, civic workers, and more. One participant told us this name suggests, “‘We’re on your side. We’re with you.'” Another said, “It says that this is Oakland’s side of the story.” Thank you to everyone involved for sharing your time and input, which also influenced the design of our logo by Oakland designed by Mike Nicholls, who shared more about his design.
We’re powered by Cityside, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization committed to building community through local journalism. Cityside also publishes Berkeleyside and Richmondside.
More about us
Contact us
Email (preferred): editors@oaklandside.org
Mailing address:
The Oaklandside
PO Box 70004
Oakland, CA, 94612
News tips and story ideas: Use the tips form
More ways to reach us
Food and drink: editors@eastbaynosh.org
Sponsorships: Learn more about engaging with Oaklandside readers.
Oaklandside member questions: members@oaklandside.org
Our newsroom
Roselyn Romero
Public Safety
Support us
Oaklandside’s nonprofit newsroom relies on reader support to do its work. Donations from readers make up approximately one-quarter of Oaklandside’s annual budget.
More than 3,000 Oaklandside readers are Oaklandside members, making regular donations to support our community-centered journalism. If you find our work valuable, we hope you will join them — and help keep our journalism free for all — by making a donation.
Cityside Journalism Initiative
In 2019, the founders of Berkeleyside, which was previously a for-profit company, together with Tasneem Raja, created Cityside Journalism Initiative, a nonprofit, civic journalism organization that publishes Berkeleyside, The Oaklandside and Richmondside. Cityside is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization (EIN 84-3448887). All donations are tax-deductible.
Editorial independence
Oaklandside, and its parent nonprofit organization Cityside, subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News, of which we are members.
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to best serve the communities we report on and to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization.
Editorial decisions are made by journalists and editors alone. Those employed in a non-editorial capacity at Cityside and our board of directors have no input into decisions made about what we report on, or how, at Oaklandside.
Cityside maintains a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
Cityside accept donations, 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 donor support. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
Cityside may consider donations 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.
Cityside will publicly disclose all one-time donations of $1,000 or more. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources in excess of $5,000, government entities, political parties, elected officials, or candidates seeking public office. If our board of directors deems a donation presents a conflict of interest with our work or will compromise our independence, we will not accept that donation.
Nonprofit newsrooms that are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News pledge to be transparent about the funding of their news operations and maintain editorial independence from all revenue sources to ensure news judgments are made in the interest of the communities they serve as journalists.
Read more about our policies at Cityside.
Corrections
At Oaklandside, we strive for accuracy and fairness in our reporting. If you believe we have made a misstatement or error in one of our articles, please email us at editors@oaklandside.org. We will append a note to the story for all major corrections.
Write for us
Do you want to contribute to Oaklandside as a freelancer? We’ve put together a primer that clearly spells out our pay structure and gives details on what you should know before you send in your pitch. Learn more about contributing to Oaklandside.
Photo licensing
We receive frequent requests from other publishers, organizations, and individuals to reuse our photos. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions, and instructions:
Do I need permission to use Oaklandside’s images?
Yes. The Oaklandside’s images and historical archive images require copyright permission.
Personal use is not re-publication in any media format. When used, images must be correctly credited. Fees vary.
Only staff material from Cityside publications is potentially available for republication. If you are interested in the use of an image credited to anyone other our staff (see above), you will need to seek permission directly from the accredited photographer.
Are Oaklandside’s photos copyrighted?
Yes, Oaklandside’s photos are copyrighted and cannot be distributed, reproduced, displayed, or broadcasted without prior written permission and a copyright license from Cityside.
How do I make a request?
Contact our team by completing this form to request a photo license to reuse images and graphics. (We reserve the right, at our discretion, to deny requests for photo licensing.)
