Homegrown Database Helps 'SF Chron' Find Sources

By: Joe Strupp When Sam Zuckerman of the San Francisco Chronicle wanted to find unemployed people moving out of the Bay Area for a story on joblessness, he did the usual, asking co-workers, friends, and anyone else he could for contacts. Yet this didn't get him far, so he sought help from "Two Cents," an unusual database of Chronicle readers and sources.

The result: he met Bryan Clouse -- a 35-year-old computer programmer who'd been out of work for more than a year and was fleeing the Bay Area for his Michigan hometown in search of gainful employment. Clouse's tale became the lead anecdote in the story, which ran late last month. "It casts a real wide net," Zuckerman said of Two Cents. "There are people I found this way that I would not have otherwise."

Zuckerman is one of many Chronicle reporters and editors who've put the new database to work since January to find sources for stories, reader reaction to news events, and "man-on-the-street" opinions. Two Cents is a listing of more than 1,600 residents of the nine Bay Area counties served by the Chronicle that includes each person's address, telephone number, e-mail address, birthday, and occupation, plus any interests, hobbies, or other facts. Their photos also are put on file.

The database started out last year merely as a way for editors to locate residents for comment on issues for a weekly Sunday column, according to Heidi Swillinger, who created the database. By January, the listing had grown so much, editors began using it to get opinions on virtually any news story or issue. "We began to expand it when a reporter came to me with a story on a poll and wanted some kind of feedback," Swillinger recalled. "I sent out an e-mail [message] to the people on the list, and, within an hour, I had more than 50 responses. I realized what the potential was."

Since then, reporters have dipped into the Two Cents well for sources and reactions on everything from organ transplants to the Pledge of Allegiance. "You can search by anything," Swillinger stressed, "[whether] you want to talk to 20-year-olds, people who live in a certain town, or people named John."

The newspaper recruits Two Cents sources using its Web site (http://www.sfgate.com), which asks each person to provide information, then come in to be photographed. Swillinger said no true background checks are performed, however. If a reporter needs a source, he or she submits a request to Swillinger.

Reporters do not have access to the database, and all queries go through her.

The paper continues to use the resource for instant vox populi responses. "It brings quite a range of expression," said Bob Egelko, a Chronicle courts reporter who used Two Cents to collect comments on a lawsuit challenging the right of marketers to send out unsolicited faxes.

For Kelly St. John, a reporter in the paper's Oakland bureau, the database produced residents who'd seen their property taxes decline -- not an easy group to find these days -- for a story on local property assessments.

Swillinger admitted Two Cents could make some reporters lazy if they relied on it too often. She said editors keep tabs on who uses the database, checking to see that no one makes a habit of it and the information is used primarily for deadline stories or those with hard-to-find sources. Editors also guard the data carefully, vowing they will not get into the hands of marketing or advertising people.