From the editor: A new byline, a new Report for America partnership and a renewed commitment to covering child welfare in Sonoma County

You may have noticed a new byline in The Press Democrat these past few months. It belongs to Adriana Gutierrez, who joined us in July.

Maybe journalists are the only ones who pay attention to bylines, but we’re pretty excited about Adriana’s for a couple of reasons, and I hope you will be too.

First and foremost, Adriana is filling a critical gap in our coverage: the health and well-being of our children in Sonoma County.

The pandemic, years of devastating wildfires, and even a major flood have disrupted young lives and learning in ways we are only now coming to understand. The depth of that trauma, particularly among our minority schoolchildren, already among the most vulnerable of our population, is unfathomable.

We have a terrific team of reporters who do an amazing job of covering the issues that matter most to you, but as Sonoma County’s main source of news it was critically important that we have a full-time reporter — at the minimum — dedicated to explaining to our readers not just what is happening, but what we can do about it.

Which brings me to the second reason why Adriana’s byline is special. She is a corps member of Report For America, a nonprofit service program — supported by an array of philanthropic foundations as well as individual donors — that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered communities.

The need has never been greater. As local newsrooms across the country shrink and disappear, they leave holes not only in the communities they serve, but also in our democracy. People can only make informed decisions about how they are governed when they have all the information they need regarding the issues affecting their lives.

For more than two centuries, local news organizations have provided that information, but more and more are falling victim to the tough economics of the industry. Some have been gobbled up by vulture-capital firms intent on draining every last dime before shutting them down. Some are owned by national chains that cut them to the bone to satisfy shareholders — decisions often made by CEOs and boards of directors who have never set foot in the communities that are affected. Some have been owned by generations of families whose children are no longer interested in journalism. And some are simply succumbing to the same market forces that have hollowed out the locally owned Main Street businesses in the communities they serve.

We at The Press Democrat are blessed to have strong, committed local ownership that is dedicated to ensuring local journalism thrives in the North Bay. But we are not immune from the economic headwinds facing the rest of the industry, so we are exploring new and innovative ways to fund the quality journalism you deserve.

One of those new ways is through our partnership with Report for America, which is an initiative of the The GroundTruth Project.

The organization’s mission is to “strengthen our communities and our democracy through local journalism that is truthful, fearless, fair and smart.”

One of the ways they do this is by underwriting half of each corps member’s salary for two years. In return the corps members agree to engage in public service projects for the duration of their assignments in their assigned communities.

It is a highly competitive program. Adriana was chosen from thousands of applicants to be a corps member, and we had to compete against hundreds of news organizations around the country (and internationally as well) to become a sponsoring news organization.

Adriana also had to complete a rigorous training program, and once she was selected, she had to undergo a rigorous round of interviews with our editors to make sure she was the right person for the job.

During the vetting process, I talked to her former editor at The (Portland) Oregonian, where Adriana interned while a student at Oregon State University. He told me how disappointed he was that his paper had not been selected to receive a corps member this year because if he had, he’d have chosen Adriana.

In the short time she’s been here, she has already proven how perfect for the job she is.

As our child-welfare reporter, Adriana is focused on the intersection of education and emotional wellness of our kids. You can see an example of her work in a Sept. 24 front-page story she wrote with education reporter Alana Minkler on the critical shortage of special education teachers in Sonoma County. Just last week, she had a story on how child poverty rates have doubled after pandemic relief programs began to expire.

Adriana’s passion for helping kids is baked into her DNA. She is an older sister to three elementary-aged siblings, who keep her grounded and help fuel her passion for reporting on child welfare.

In her Report for America application, she wrote of an experience she had helping to organize a school-supplies backpack program for disadvantage children when she was in high school in Southern California, where she grew up.

“I knew people would come but when I saw just how many families needed the extra support, I was overwhelmed,” she wrote. “It was upsetting how many children in my own community were struggling. Having grown up in a family that experienced financial hardships, I could recognize on the faces of parents when they realized they had one less thing to stress about. Being able to have some part in ensuring a child’s success at school felt like an honor, and one I won’t forget.”

We at The Press Democrat are proud to have Adriana as a member of our team, and we’re proud to be a member of the Report for America family.

If you have story ideas for Adriana, you can reach her at Adriana.gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.

In the meantime, you can find out more about Report for America at ReportForAmerica.org, and you can support the kind of work Adriana does through our link on its site, bit.ly/3PRgESN.

You can also find out how you can support local journalism through our nonprofit Press Democrat Journalism Trust at pdjt.org.

I often say that cheap journalism isn’t good, and good journalism isn’t cheap. Your dollars can help us ensure that Press Democrat readers continue to have the information they need to help democracy thrive in our communities.

John D’Anna is the interim executive editor of The Press Democrat. Reach him at john.danna@pressdemocrat.com.