Daniel Weintraub: In leaving, it's more like creating a spin-off

By Daniel Weintraub - dweintraub@sacbee.com

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After nine years at The Bee, this is my final column as a regular feature on this page. But while I will be leaving the paper's payroll, I hope to be a frequent contributor to the ongoing discussion here about politics and public policy in this troubled state.

These years have been tumultuous for California politics. I arrived at The Bee in the fall of 2000, just as California's electricity market was melting down, thanks to a poorly drafted legislative overhaul that was manipulated by the energy companies. Even as that crisis was being resolved, we witnessed the collapse of the dot-com bubble and all its implications for the state's budget, which still reverberate today.

Together we watched a historic recall election and the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger from Hollywood star to chief executive. We followed his successes and failures through annual – and sometimes more frequent – trips to the ballot box. And we shared the frustration of watching him fail to resolve the biggest problem he was elected to address: the state's chronic budget deficits.

Daniel Weintraub can be reached at daniel.weintraub@gmail.com

My time at The Bee also has coincided with the transformation of our industry from a mostly print readership to one moving increasingly toward electronic distribution via the Internet.

While that change has been difficult for the newspaper industry's business model, I've been a big supporter of the Internet as a way for us to better connect with our readers. With my editors' support, I've tried to be a pioneer in the field, and now, to their chagrin, I am taking what I've learned and leaving to do my own thing.

Starting Monday I'll be pursuing a career as an independent journalist. I am working on plans to create and edit a health policy Web site with initial funding from a nonprofit foundation. On this site I and others will be reporting on policy issues that affect our health – not just health care itself but also the environment, land-use, transportation, economic policy and other issues.

In the same space I will be convening an online community of consumers, health care providers, activists and others who want to share their experiences dealing with the kind of policy problems – and successes – on which I will report. There also will be space for readers to share their stories and exchange views on these issues in an ongoing discussion that I will moderate. My goal is to more closely connect policymakers with the people who have to deal with that policy, or a lack of it, in their lives and work.

I also will continue to publish my work frequently in newspapers, including The Bee, where I'll write about the breadth of California politics and policy. At least for the next several months, I will be writing a Sunday column on politics for the new Bay Area edition of the New York Times.

The outline of my new health policy Web project should sound familiar to people who have followed my work. It is in the same vein as many of the initiatives we have pursued at The Bee.

My goal as a journalist always has been to explain complicated issues in ways that make them meaningful to people who do not closely follow politics and public policy. As a beat reporter, my stories took an analytical bent. As a columnist, my pieces were probably less opinionated than most. I tried to find the sweet spot where I could help readers think, rather than telling them what to think.

I've also embraced new ways and new technology to try to engage our readers in that debate.

The Bee was the first mainstream newspaper in California to publish a Web log by one of its political journalists when the paper encouraged me to complement my columns with the California Insider in 2003. During the 2007 debate on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health reform proposals, we convened an online "crossroads" of doctors, nurses, consumer representatives and experts to weigh in on the issues and take questions from readers.