Oaklandside’s Alejandra Armstrong, Roselyn Romero, Darwin BondGraham receive journalism honors

Alejandra Armstrong, Oaklandside’s public engagement editor, has been honored by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Skilled Journalists with the Unsung Hero Award for 2025. And the newsroom’s senior information editor, Darwin BondGraham, and our public security reporter, Roselyn Romero, have been acknowledged for greatest in-depth interview for his or her dialog with then- Pamela Price, Alameda County District Attorney.

“I am so happy that this compelling interview with Pamela Worth is getting the popularity it deserves,” stated Tasneem Raja, editor-in-chief of The Oaklandside. “It was important accountability journalism at an important democratic second. Darwin and Roselyn skillfully sidestepped Worth’s well-documented media reluctance and superior substantive responses to controversial insurance policies and administration selections weeks earlier than Worth confronted a historic recall election. It was an incredible service to the voters of Alameda County.”

Armstrong, who joined Cityside in 2022, is liable for guaranteeing the journalism from Cityside’s 4 newsrooms – The Oaklandside, Berkeleyside, Richmondside and East Bay Nosh – is printed with readers first.

Lengthy earlier than a reporter begins reporting, Armstrong makes certain they’ve answered the essential questions: Why are we doing this? Who’s it supposed for? How will it assist them? What’s the easiest way to convey this info?

Armstrong’s skills in optimizing Cityside’s journalism to greatest serve its various communities, and her experience in SEO, viewers information evaluation, social media and newsletters, have helped construct a big and extremely engaged viewers. Greater than 600,000 folks go to Cityside websites each month, together with 268,000 guests to The Oaklandside, and our newsletters routinely obtain open charges of over 50% – with some as excessive as 60% to 80%. Cityside’s social media accounts have greater than 147,000 followers, together with practically 30,000 followers of Oaklandside accounts.

“The function of viewers editor at native information organizations remains to be comparatively new, however with the appropriate particular person within the function, somebody whose editorial judgment is as robust as their analytical abilities, it may be transformative. That is one thing Alejandra demonstrates each day at Cityside,” stated Tracey Taylor, co-founder and Chief Content material Officer of Cityside.

“I’m honored to obtain this award,” stated Armstrong. “I actually benefit from the work I do at Cityside: working with nice journalists and discovering inventive methods to unfold info to our communities. I particularly get pleasure from listening to from readers, receiving their suggestions and arising with actionable responses. There’s quite a lot of public service work occurring behind the scenes, so being acknowledged by the SPJ board actually means loads.”

SPJ NorCal offered two Profession Achievement Awards this 12 months: one to Kevin Fagan, who just lately retired from the San Francisco Chronicle, for his many years of award-winning on-the-ground reporting on the realities of homelessness within the Bay Space; and the opposite to Monica Campbell, a longtime public radio reporter and editor who spent her profession as an immigration reporter within the Bay Space and Latin America, and now directs the state-funded California Native Information Fellowship program based mostly at UC Berkeley. (To see all winners from 2025.)

SPJ NorCal’s fortieth annual awards ceremony for “excellence in journalism” will happen Thursday night on the Bayview Opera Home in San Francisco.