New Column Debuts Today

I'm delighted to welcome Betty Buginas' new column, "School Matters," to El Cerrito Patch.

Last week, she wrote her first article for us, a Guest Column providing an overview of how El Cerrito schools have changed. And she'll be writing about El Cerrito schools in future School Matters columns. But today in her debut of School Matters, she offers an illuminating account of her personal odyssey from newspapers to a combined career of teaching and online journalism pioneer.

I find her column today fascinating and moving, not only because she tells the story of her role in bringing online journalism to El Cerrito 11 years ago when she founded El Cerrito Wire.

I was personally touched by her account of other local journalists from newspaper backgrounds whose names are now appearing on Patch. Those who remember bylines will recognize many of our contributors' names from local papers. Local newspapers are in my blood too. My first byline as a staff writer appeared in the Daily Californian at UC Berkeley, then the Contra Costa (Richmond) Independent, followed by the old Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner before I settled for many years at the San Francisco Chronicle.

And I was deeply moved by Betty's description of the potential of El Cerrito Patch, which we launched six weeks ago. She captured the feelings that motivate me to log on to the site first thing in the morning before breakfast, to dash about town with my notebook and camera, and to find myself many evenings still at the keyboard past midnight. 

I believe profoundly in the necessity of preserving an independent, accurate and robust American press. I don't see how a democracy can be healthy if the people don't have readily available and reliable information on which to make decisions. Newspapers fulfilled this role for many generations, but now their reach is rapidly shrinking.

I love newspapers, and I want to them to survive in some form. But they are no longer able by themselve to fulfill the mission of the press. Thousands of former print journalists who've left or been jettisoned by the sinking newspaper industry are seeking to build a new home for the Fourth Estate online. What you're seeing today on your computer screens is a different delivery system — but often it's the same values, standards and, in many cases, the same people who used to deliver the news on paper.

Patch is not the only online news organization, but we are one of the fastest growing with a lot of potential. And El Cerrito Patch is its own enterprise — able to take advantage of the vast resources of the national Patch network — but dependent on and created by local journalists and local readers.

Unlike newspapers, we are not largely a one-way street. Online journalism is interactive journalism. We need you, the readers, to join with us in creating a vital and viable source of accurate, relevant and in-depth information about our community.

We welcome your ideas, suggestions and contributions. You can tell us what you want to know, what you think we should be doing and what we've done that bugged you or pleased you. And if you'd like to write for us, send us photographs or contribute in other ways, we'd be glad to hear from you.