La Habra Brea Fullerton Placentia Yorba Linda Buena Park ypress Stanton Anaheim Villa Park s Garden Grove Orange Orange County s nonprofit investigative news agency Westminster Santa Ana Tustin Huntington Beach Fountain Valley Costa Mesa Newport Beach Irvine Woods Lake Forest Mission Viejo Ranc San Marga Aliso Viejo Hills Las Flores 207 N. Broadway, Suite H Santa Ana, CA 92701 Ph: 714.558.8642 Fax: 714.558.8643 Beach Niguel Dana Point San Juan Capistrano www.voiceofoc.org
Nonprofit journalism on the rise The Christian Science Monitor 02/12/08 Web Sites That Dig for News Rise as Watchdogs The New York Times 11/17/08 Owner of L.A. Times files for bankruptcy Los Angeles Times 12/09/08 O.C. Register publisher files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Los Angeles Times 09/02/09 Nonprofit website plans watchdog journalism for Orange County Los Angeles Times 09/15/09
Our Mission To hold government agencies, elected officials and other power brokers in Orange County accountable through investigative news coverage. And to be a catalyst in the community for a robust and sophisticated discourse on local politics and government. Voice of OC Offers: A daily online news service that provides authoritative coverage of the people and institutions that impact the lives of county residents. Real-time tracking of votes, campaign finance and individual meeting calendars for city council and county wide elected officials. Advocacy on First Amendment issues and a push for greater access to public records. Sponsorship of public policy conferences, polling and election debates. Eventual multilingual publication, including versions in Spanish and Vietnamese. Based in the historic heart of downtown Santa Ana Left: The Voice of OC offices in Santa Ana. 1
Our Plan Voice of OC reporters deploy through a geographically based beat structure with each reporter covering several cities. Senior reporters also write about regional issues such as water and immigration in addition to their coverage of municipal issues. And Voice of OC connects local issues to broader statewide and federal institutions and elected officials in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. In many respects, Voice of OC reporters cover their beats like good municipal reporters have always covered city halls. But our approach goes significantly beyond a standard newsroom municipal coverage plan. First and foremost, Voice of OC focuses on accountability in government, not the process of government. This means that our stories are driven not by meetings or events, but by the deep understanding our reporters and editors have of the issues that local governments face. Voice of OC journalists hit the nuts and bolts of local government by monitoring claims and lawsuits filed against the cities. Also, we routinely check the calendars, campaign finance filings and conflict of interest disclosures made by city officials as well as the closed session discussions of boards and councils. The result of this reporting is a regular series of actionable intelligence reports for the public. In addition, much of the information gathered by our journalists and researchers is entered into databases that will eventually will be made searchable and available on our website. These databases will both inform Voice of OC s reporting and arm citizens with information they ve never had comprehensive access to. The databases will also provide the organization with a premium product for subscribers such as lobbyists, consultants, developers, non-profits, etc. Beyond the data-driven news gathering, Voice of OC covers the vexing issues that most challenge modern society things like homelessness, development and the environment. But our stories on such issues are told from the perspective of a particular city or neighborhood. They aren t the homogenous, paint-by-numbers issue stories so often seen in the mainstream media. And our passion for government and politics is not limited to our news pages Voice of OC plans to host debates, forums and other events that bring residents and policy makers together. The combination of our news coverage and events provide a level of civic participation that until now Orange County residents have lacked, but sorely needed. 2
Our Team The Voice of OC newsroom is home to a diverse group of dedicated journalists with a wide range of experiences in both their lives and their craft. Our senior editors and reporters have worked in some of the largest newsrooms in the nation and garnered some of the industry s most prestigious awards. Joining them are a group of young reporters who come from different backgrounds but share a hunger to make their mark in journalism. Norberto Santana, Jr. Editor-in-Chief Norberto Santana, Jr. is an award-winning investigative reporter with two decades of experience at major daily newspapers. Before founding Voice of OC in 2009, Santana was a lead investigative reporter for the Orange County Register and spent a decade covering local governments across Southern California. His work has included exposes on public safety spending and deportation policies in Orange County and misuse of funds at the San Diego Red Cross. In addition to his experience as a journalist, the Southern California native has a master s in Latin American Studies and has worked as an elections analyst with the National Endowment for Democracy. He also has direct experience on Internet start-ups as one of the founders of CubaNet.org, a website for dissident writers inside Cuba that has operated since 1995. David Washburn Managing Editor David Washburn comes to Voice of OC directly from voiceofsandiego.org, one of the first and most successful independent, nonprofit local news websites in the nation. David spent the better part of two years at VOSD as a senior reporter and assistant editor. He was the primary editor on an award-winning investigation of a charter school administrator. Before joining VOSD, David spent eight years as an enterprise/investigative reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune. David s work at the U-T included award-winning stories on financial elder abuse, lack of oversight of contractors in Iraq, San Diego s high rate of officer-involved shootings and mismanagement at the San Diego Red Cross. David also worked as a reporter at the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call and as a researcher for Dateline NBC. David is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and is currently working toward a master s of film and new media at San Diego State University. 3
Our Board The Voice of OC board of directors is a powerhouse of influential players from the worlds of journalism, politics and advocacy. Senator Joe Dunn (ret.) Chairman of the Board Dunn is a nationally respected litigator who represented Orange County in the California State Senate from 1998 to 2006. He gained notoriety in Sacramento for his leadership role on the committee investigating Enron s tactics during the state s energy crisis in 2000. Dunn also spearheaded several other legislative investigations that examined deportations of Mexican Americans in the 1930s and uncovered a domestic spying scandal involving the California National Guard and the Bush Administration. Dunn is a cofounder and managing partner with The Senator s Law Firm. Senator Martha Escutia (ret.) Escutia represented Los Angeles in the California State Assembly and Senate from 1998 to 2006. She was best known for her legislation that took junk food out of public schools and for her efforts to get health insurance for children. She also brings a wealth of experience in Mexican affairs as a legal expert on trade and tariff issues. Escutia will be joining Joe Dunn as a co-founder and managing partner of The Senator s Law Firm. Henry Weinstein Weinstein, former prizewinning legal affairs reporter with the Los Angeles Times, is now a professor at UCI law school teaching legal writing and developing clinical programs. As a journalist Weinstein was known for his work on death penalty cases freeing one man after 24 years in prison as well as investigations into consumer fraud and whitecollar crime. Stephen M. Garcia Garcia is among the nation s top plaintiff s lawyers. He has served as lead counsel on behalf of disenfranchised consumers in cases including insurance bad faith, medical malpractice, elder abuse and products liability. Garcia has taken on the county of Los Angeles and corporations such as Allstate and State Farm insurance companies, Pennzoil, Countrywide Home Loans, United Airlines and AT&T. His accolades include the California Lawyer of the Year award for elder law in 2009, and in 2007 he was a finalist for the Consumer Attorney s of California Street Fighter of the Year award. 4
Thomas V. Girardi Girardi is widely regarded by his peers as one of the nation s top trial lawyers. With nearly fifty years of experience representing victims, Girardi has obtained numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, handling claims involving wrongful death, commercial litigation, products liability, bad faith insurance and toxic torts. Mr. Girardi is a member of the Board of Directors and former president of the prestigious International Academy of Trial Lawyers, an invitation-only worldwide organization limited to 500 trial lawyers. Girardi is also the first trial lawyer to be appointed to the California Judicial Council, the policymaking body of the state courts. James J. Brosnahan Brosnahan is one of the nation s most respected and recognized trial lawyers, with expertise in both civil and criminal trial work. The National Law Journal lists him on the Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America. Mr. Brosnahan has served as special counsel to the California Legislature s Joint Subcommittee on Crude Oil Pricing, the lawyers representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and Chairman of the Delegation, and president of the Bar Association of San Francisco. He also serves as Master Advocate on the faculty and member of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Jess Araujo Araujo, a Santa Ana attorney, brings decades of experience on immigration and border issues having worked as an activist, attorney and columnist with ethnic newspapers across the state. He has served as general counsel to both the Salvadoran and Mexican consulates in Orange County. Erwin Chemerinsky Chemerinsky, inaugural dean of the new law school at the University of California, Irvine, is one of the nation s most respected constitutional scholars. Chemerinsky taught for years at the University of Southern California and has written extensively on the U.S. Supreme Court. He also has stayed active in public policy issues, with a central role in the LAPD Rampart scandal investigation and the crafting of a new charter for the City of Los Angeles.
Our Audience Voice of OC has tapped into one of the largest under served media markets in America. With more than three million residents, Orange County is America s fifth largest county but has no broadcast affiliate or even a public radio station. Both major newspapers that serve Orange County The Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times have been mired in bakruptcy proceedings and instituted numerous rounds of layoffs in recent years. The result is dwindling coverage of the 34 cities and myriad government agencies that impact residents daily lives. There s a hunger among residents to know what s going on at their local city hall. And until now, no one to deliver. Orange County......Has the highest percentages of households with personal computers and households connected to the Internet among counties nationwide....has more WiFi hot spots than any other county in the United States....Has greater numbers of cell phones and laptops than any other place in the world....is home to nearly 160,000 government workers comprising more than 10% of the work force....has the largest concentration of Vietnamese residents in the country. Voice of OC s concentration on municipal coverage will be of particular interest to the large number of government workers employed in Orange County. That s nearly 160,000 people, or more than 10 percent of the County s total workforce, according to the 2008 Orange County Business Council Workforce Indicators Report. In addition to concerned residents and government workers, the Voice of OC s emphasis on government will also attract developers, bankers, environmentalists and others who interact with government agencies on a regular basis. With strong government coverage comes strong political coverage. And that opens up an additional market during heavy election cycles, such as 2010, with a gubernatorial race, a county supervisor race and an election for sheriff. Heavy elections tend to generate better than average advertising revenues because of the need to advertise candidates, ballot initiatives, etc. And because Voice of OC will ultimately be available in Spanish and Vietnamese it will be able to tap into historically under-served communities. More than 33 percent of Orange County residents nearly 1 million people identified themselves as Latino in the last census. Orange County is also home to the largest concentration of Vietnamese residents in the United States, with an estimated 110,000 people. 6
Our Budget The Voice of OC s combined operating budget in 2010 will be approximately $650,000, with an additional $17,000 in capital costs. This budget is significantly lower than other prominent nonprofit daily news websites. For example, California Watch and The Texas Tribune have multi-million-dollar budgets and voiceofsandiego.org and MinnPost.com have budgets of $1.1 and $1.3 million, respectively. Thanks to technology and a management emphasis on the work product over office infrastructure, more than 86 percent of Voice of OC s budget is spent on the people who report and edit the news. Less than 5 percent of the budget goes for things like office rent and hosting of the website. Compare this to a traditional newspaper, where as much as 70 percent of the budget goes toward the printing and distribution of the product. Although Voice of OC will rely almost entirely on large donors in its first year, the organization will implement a funding model that incorporates several ongoing revenue streams. The following is a brief explanation of each revenue source and its estimated share of the organization s overall revenue in future years: Large Donors Individuals and institutions who pledge a minimum of $25,000 annually. These donors will ultimately account for between 35 and 50 percent of overall revenue. Foundations Voice of OC s mission is attractive to a significant number of local and national foundations. Other nonprofit news sites have received six-figure grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and other national funders. Several local foundations also share Voice of OC s mission. Foundation support will ultimately account for between 25 and 35 percent of overall revenue. Voice of OC Members Individuals will be able to join Voice of OC at various membership levels, much like the Public Broadcasting System membership model. Annual membership will range from as little as $25 annually to more than $10,000. Memberships will ultimately account for between 10 and 20 percent of overall revenue. Premium Content Voice of OC s focus on local government news and data is attractive to many individuals and organizations in Orange County who depend on local governments for revenue and/or are engaged in the political process. Washington-based government news operations, such as Congressional Quarterly, have proven that such premium content has significant revenue potential. This content will ultimately account for between 10 and 25 percent of overall revenue. Advertising Once Voice of OC establishes itself as a credible and consistent source of local government news, advertisers that serve our niche market will come. Advertising will ultimately account for between 15 and 25 percent of overall revenue. Events News organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, have found that special events such as election and issuebased forums and conferences can provide consistent revenue. Voice of OC s expertise in politics and government makes the organization a natural host for such events. Events will ultimately account for between 5 and 15 percent of overall revenue. This is a sustainable funding model that ensures Voice of OC does not depend too heavily on a single revenue source. 7
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Newport Beach Costa Mesa Santa Ana Fountain Valley Huntington Beach Westminster Stanton ypress s Garden Grove Anaheim Fullerton Yorba Linda Brea La Habra Buena Park Placentia Orange Tustin Beach Hills Las Flores Villa Park Woods Niguel Aliso Viejo Dana Point San Juan Capistrano Mission Viejo Ranc San Marga Lake Forest Irvine