East Bay Express (Emeryville, Calif.)

By: While mainstream newspapers nervously experiment with Twitter, Facebook and anything labeled "social media" in desperate bids to reconnect with their communities, the East Bay Express is literally offering seminars on its success in "localization."

"I think we have cracked the code on community-building," says Publisher Jody Colley ? and she's not bragging. The Express led a national movement among alt-papers last Christmas to encourage readers to stimulate their local economies by pledging to spend at least $100 on locally owned retailers, noting they keep dollars in the community longer than chains. It offered free weddings when same-sex marriage was briefly legal in California, and gathered dozens of bands to perform at a huge listening party. On the paper's busy agenda are organizing urban farms in its Oakland/Berkeley market, ramping up the modest Oakland Film Festival and serving as consultants for local start-up businesses.

Colley contends newspaper community building can work beyond quirky Berkeley: "It's a highly transportable idea."