San Leandro Patch Welcomes New Editor

We are happy to announce that Tom Abate has been named editor of San Leandro Patch.

Abate, a longtime journalist, worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and the S.F. Examiner as a reporter and columnist, covering business, science, biotech and the economy. Notably his work (twice nominated for Pulitzers) included covering Silicon Valley and the economy during two presidential races.

He’s a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and the Columbia School of Journalism, where he was one of three students to receive a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, which he used to go to the Philippines to write about politics, science and the effects of U.S. military base closures. He also completed the Defense Information Training School’s journalism program.

For most of the past 12 years, Abate has lived in San Leandro, where he raised his sons and enjoys gardening.

As a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, he is familiar with the East Bay and its issues. While at Cal, he was editor-in-chief and president of the independent, student-run Daily Cal and was known for helping to save it from bankruptcy by hiring a business manager and for breaking a story on the H-bomb that got national attention.

Abate also has an entrepreneurial streak. He co-founded a typesetting and publishing firm and an alternative monthly newspaper, the North Coast Journal, in Eureka.