The California Media Collaborative was established in May 2007 by Louis Freedberg,
in association with the Commonwealth Club of California.

In September 2007, it convened a landmark invitational conference at UC Berkeley,
“Covering California: Media, Community and Democracy in the Golden State,”
in conjunction with the Travers Program in Ethics and Accountability in Government.
Over 200 leaders from key California constituencies attended the day-long event.
Download conference Agenda

The Collaborative also produced a report, Covering California: Perspectives on
the Media, based on interviews with 70 California leaders, looking at the state of
California coverage, and new strategies for improving it.

Advising the Collaborative is a 19-member board made up of distinguished
representatives from the media and other key California constituencies.

WHO WE ARE
Louis Freedberg, Founder and Director
Until August 2007, Louis Freedberg was an editorial writer and
columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, after serving as the
Chronicle’s higher education reporter and Washington correspondent.
He was a senior editor at Pacific News Service, where he established
and directed Pacific Youth Press, and was the founder and director
of Youth News in Oakland. He has reported for a wide range of
publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post
and Washington Monthly. He was the recipient of a John S. Knight
Journalism Fellowship at Stanford and an Alicia Patterson
Journalism Fellowship.

Joy Carlson
Joy Carlson is currently principal at J. Carlson Consulting, a firm
specializing in strategic planning and organizational development.

Charles Koppelman
Charles Koppelman is a marketing and communications consultant,
author, and producer in the arts.

Heidi Swillinger
Heidi Swillinger, formerly Community Editor for the San Francisco
Chronicle, is special projects editor at the San Francisco Study Center.

Sarah Bessie David
Sara Bessie David, formerly an executive assistant with Chiron, is the executive assistant for the California Media Collaborative.

FUNDERS
The Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation
The James Irvine Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Blue Shield of California Foundation

BOARD OF ADVISORS