The Bay Citizen Plans Leadership Transition for 2012

Lisa Frazier will step down as President and CEO in Q1 2012 but will continue to serve on the Board of Directors

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Bay Citizen announced today that it will begin a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Lisa Frazier, who co-founded the award-winning news organization two years ago, will step down as President and CEO in the first quarter of 2012 to pursue other opportunities. She will remain on The Bay Citizen's Board of Directors and participate in the search for her successor.

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"Through her unbelievable passion, tenacity, and tremendous operational and strategic expertise, Lisa transformed an idea to innovate and reinvent local journalism into a vibrant, award-winning online news organization," said Warren Hellman, Chairman of the Board of The Bay Citizen.  "Over almost three years, Lisa designed the business model, marshaled community support and succeeded in building a strong organization."

Frazier has been The Bay Citizen's President and CEO since its inception in January 2010, after leading the effort to create and develop the organization in 2009. She built The Bay Citizen from the ground up, hiring key editorial, technology and business staff, expanding the organization to 30 employees and establishing pivotal partnerships with The New York Times, KGO radio and the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She raised more than $17.5 million dollars from major donors, members, corporations and foundations that will continue to support the organization through 2014. The Bay Citizen's growing network of individual donors tripled this year and now exceeds 6,000. Its editorial content appears online, in print and on the radio, supplementing the fast-growing audience at baycitizen.org, which now averages over 275,000 unique visitors per month.

"With its growing readership and expanding network of supporters, The Bay Citizen is in an excellent position to bring on new leadership," Hellman said. "Lisa accomplished all that she set out to do and more as the leader of the organization. I am pleased that she will continue to serve on the Board and assist in the search for her successor."

The Bay Citizen newsroom, now led by Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Fainaru, has won several awards, including a national Sigma Delta Chi award for investigative reporting. Along with Chief Technology Officer Brian Kelley, Frazier developed The Bay Citizen's industry-leading technology program, including Project Armstrong, an open-source content management and business platform funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"We are proud to partner with The Bay Citizen to provide our Bay Area readers with high quality regional news coverage," said Scott Heekin-Canedy, President and General Manager of The New York Times.  "We see this as an enduring collaboration not only because of The Bay Citizen's talented editorial team, but also because of the critical work done by Lisa and her team to build an effective model and infrastructure for our collaboration." The Bay Citizen's newsroom produces the articles in The Times' Bay Area report every Friday and Sunday.

Frazier will join fellow Board members Hellman, Jeff Ubben and Susan Hirsch on the search committee for a President and CEO, support the transition process and continue to serve on The Bay Citizen's Board of Directors.

"Close to three years ago I was surrounded by constant discussion of the death of the newspaper business in the United States," Frazier said. "I reached a point where I felt it was time to jump in and take action.  I was so fortunate to be able to tap the Bay Area community's energy, spirit and passion for innovation to help develop a new model for sustainable local journalism.  My goal was to establish a foundation upon which The Bay Citizen could sustain itself, provide great value to the Bay Area community, and lead technology innovation within the industry.  I am incredibly proud of our team.  They are innovators who see challenges as opportunities and I am confident they and my successor will continue the incredible progress we've made to date. I look forward to remaining on the Board and continuing to be a part of this talented and dedicated organization."  

ABOUT THE BAY CITIZEN:
The Bay Citizen is a nonprofit, nonpartisan member-supported news organization that provides in-depth original reporting on Bay Area issues including public policy, education, the arts and cultural affairs, health and science, the environment, and more. The Bay Citizen's news can be found online at www.baycitizen.org as well as in print in The New York Times Bay Area report on Fridays and Sundays. For more information, please visit www.baycitizen.org.

Media contact: Claudia Carasso, (415) 806-8324, [email protected]

SOURCE The Bay Citizen