Although the principal operations of the Oakland Tribune will remain in Walnut Creek and San Jose, the Bay Area News Group announced today that a new "open newsroom" in downtown Oakland will provide space for community meetings, blogger desks, and free public Wi-Fi. 

Oakland Tribune editor Martin Reynolds will step down and become the senior editor for community engagement for Bay Area News Group.  Reynolds will partner with Dori Maynard, who runs The Maynard Institute, an organization base in Oakland and founded to honor the memory of Bob Maynard, the Tribune's former owner and publisher, to run the program.

Reynolds, born and raised in Oakland, is stepping down as Tribune's editor to take this new role; it's not clear when a new editor will be announced, or what the new management structure for the Oakland Tribune will be.  Given that 120 staff positions are rumored to be cut in the next week, it's also not clear what number of professional reporters will remain dedicated to covering Oakland--this community "open newsroom" may become BANG's way of giving something back as comprehensive, professional news coverage is taken away.

"The new open newsroom will take our work to the next level," said Reynolds. "The community can now engage in the creative process of journalism in a way on on a scale none of us could have imaged." 

According to Mac Tully, John Paton, Digital First CEO, who is coming in
to lead BANG and other ANG properties, was an advocate for BANG implementing the open newsroom strategy that was first rolled out in Torrington, CT.

The first lab is planned to open in early 2012, but Reynolds says that the Trib may reopen the space  they have rented since 2010 of The West Okland branch of the Oakland public library and make that their first "open newsroom."

At Oakland Local, where we've been providing training and publishing community voices since 2009, we're interested to see how this announcement actually plays out; the announcement made by Mac Tully, president of BANG, promises Texas-Tribune style databases, WAP mobile portals and a partnership with local bloggers. An expansion of community coverage is also planned--though it's not clear how much will be reporting, as opposed to new business directories and databases.

As these new plans kick in, will the Trib take a leaf from papers in other states and partner with sites like Oakland Local and other local bloggers, like Zennie Abraham?  Will more locals get published regularly in the Trib?  Given that  BANG hasn't yet even found a downtown location for the new open newsroom, it's premature to speculate, but Reynolds' says their goal is to provide a space where local "blogs"--like A Better Oakland and Oakland Local--can teach classes and do work. 

"The Tribune absolutely will be more open to partnering with local news sites like Oakland Local," said Martin Reynolds.

We can only hope that as professional reporters are siphoned off from covering Oakland news, the Tribune's new commitment to empowering and publishing community voices has the  positive impact that the citizens of Oakland deserve.

It would be terrific to see coverage of news and events in Oakland improve, with a more empowered citizenry, more diverse voices, and more writing by people who actually live in Oakland and have an investment in building a healthy city.  Making that happen was one of the big reasons we started Oakland Local, and if the Tribune can deliver on this big vision, we welcome them as another ally in the cause.