Also, pick up the latest OakBook with my homegirl Ruby of iLL-Literacy on the cover http://www.iLL-Literacy.com

I love Oakland, and I appreciate all of you pushing localism in an age of streamlined press release reporting.

I lived in a suburb of Chicago during my high school years. I woke up early every morning to read both the Trib and the Sun-Times. Front page and Op-Ed were mandatory, the rest had to wait until after school. It was sad to read that the Tribune Corp. recently declared bankruptcy. But, today’s newspapers, for the most part, don’t offer anything of substance. You do, V. And I am grateful to be allowed to be a part of it.

I think he would blog but he doesn’t have time to learn how.

I want to thank each of the bloggers who help keep me informed and connected. Those of us who care will be the ones to make “A Better Oakland.”

Thanks.

If you get a chance take a look at my Alameda Real Estate blog.
http://94501realestate.blogspot.com/

I was still pretty shocked with the excitement JLN seemed to create, even if I felt people had select reading comprehension skills. People even started asking for it. But after two years of just doing it monthly, I was totally burned out going to every single meeting and trying to keep up with the calendar, etc. Then, when advertisers started not paying, that was pretty crappy and I decided to give it a rest. It’s not like it ever made any money or paid me for my time or Simon’s time.

One person called it “pretty good for an amateur” and decided to do his own through JLDA after I stopped printing JLN in December 2007.

Now that the JLDA Call is also coming to an end after a realization of just how much work it really takes to put together a monthly publication and hearding cats, er, I mean advertisers. I keep thinking that I should do JLN again… but Simon reminds me of the complaints; the constant coming in to my business, not to spend money, but to whinge about the neighborhood; the constant effort to get advertisers and decent ads (resolution!); and the financial loss. He would rather I get a real job and do newsletters for someone else.

When I first started there was a group called the Oakland Newsletter Network, and we even tried using a Yahoo Group to keep in touch. But it wasn’t very successful. It’s hard to get together for meetings (and I was working 6 days a week back then) although we were all frustrated with the lack of LOCAL news in the Tribune. Shiela D’Amico & Toni Locke from the MacArthur Metro, Don Kinkead at the Rockridge News, and Jim Ratliff were BIG HUGE advisors to me, and their help was SO appreciated. They rock. There was another woman that did a paper – I wish I could remember her name because she was also a huge help. It was seeing something so simple as a front/back paper with info that made me realize that I didn’t need to make it as fancy as the Rockridge News or the MacArthur Metro and print on newsprint. Of course, I, being me, had to get more complex each and ultimately I was doing an 8-page color paper. I had current news, history (often antique postcards), and the calendar. Maybe a recipe pertinent to what was going on at the farmers’ market and articles on the local non-profits – who are always looking for publicity and donations.

In any case, I would love to do it again, but I can’t afford to not get paid any more! Wish I could. I have all sorts of ideas, but just not the resources. Unfortunately, getting advertisers in this economy is all the harder.

Bloggers are fab, and I still do it on occasion… maybe I’ll just go back to doing that more.

Cheers,
Joanna

Thank you again and keep up the good work.

I used to check out SFGate all the time – however, lately, blogs seem to be the place to go. They seem to address the things that are of interest to me.

I always check out your blog, and have been pointing others this way. Your links to other blogs are great.

Thanks for this list. I don’t know how you have time to go through all of these blogs.