Danielle Bergstrom is building a newsroom around transparency

Danielle Bergstrom began her career as a city planner. That work, which she did in Fresno for 10 years, put her up close and personal with the goings-ons of City Hall. And seeing the “sausage making” there, as she says, convinced her that city residents needed the same insider understanding of what was happening in local government. That is when she started Fresnoland – a nonprofit, paywall-free investigative news platform now serving 1.5 million residents across Fresno and Madera County, dedicated to transparency in local politics. 

In this episode, Danielle shares:

• Why she left policy work to build a newsroom

• The values that guide Fresnoland’s reporters and why they don’t aspire to be “objective” in the traditional journalistic sense

• The challenges she and her staff face while reporting on City Hall, and how Fresnoland is taking on Fresno’s culture of closed-door government

• How a new Fresnoland live event series is broadening the public’s civic imagination

• Plus the backstory behind some big, recent local headlines and how Fresnoland got its name. 

Next Episode, we head to New Orleans. Stay tuned for conversations about climate justice in one of the most climate vulnerable cities in the country. 

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Learn more about Fresnoland at Fresnoland.org

Listen all of Season 2 at https://pathbreakers.kresge.org

Co-Hosts: Tracey Pearson and Jamie Bennett

Producer: Juliet Hinely

Managing Editor: Krista Jahnke

Production support: Jennifer Kulczycki and Tracey Pearson

Special thanks on this episode to Kresge’s American Cities Program, especially Chantel Rush Tebbe and Anand Sharma.

Thanks for listening! 

Our final stop on this Season 2 PathBreakers Tour is New Orleans, coming out in October.