Berkeleyside welcomes some new entrants in local coverage. The New York Times, which launched its Bay Area pages in the newspaper last week, unveiled its new Bay Area blog this afternoon. Thanks, by the way, for including Berkeleyside on the blogroll. And neighboring Oakland, long a hotbed of hyperlocal sites, saw the launch of Oakland Local this week.  It has a particularly strong connection with many community groups which gives the site its own flavor.

Lance Knobel (Berkeleyside co-founder) has been a journalist for nearly 40 years. Much of his career was in business journalism. He was editor-in-chief of both Management Today, the leading business magazine...