Berkeleyside names local news veteran Zac Farber as its new editor-in-chief

Cityside Journalism Initiative, Berkeleyside’s nonprofit parent organization, is delighted to announce that Zac Farber, a longtime local newsroom leader, has been appointed Berkeleyside’s new editor-in-chief.

Farber has served as Berkeleyside’s managing editor since 2021, working alongside Editor-in-Chief Pamela Turntine, who left Cityside at the end of last year.

“I am thrilled that Zac will be leading our newsroom as it enters its 16th year, and excited for this next chapter for Berkeleyside,” said Tracey Taylor, co-founder of Berkeleyside and Cityside’s Chief Content Officer. “Cityside CEO Lance Knobel, Chief Strategy Officer Tasneem Raja and I are all very impressed by Zac’s vision for Berkeleyside — which includes a determination to hear directly from the city’s different communities about their information needs —  and his strategy to implement it. We are confident Berkeley residents will benefit from even better local journalism with Zac at the helm.”

“Again and again over the past four years, I’ve been inspired by the thought and rigor the team at Berkeleyside has brought to their work — telling nuanced stories that amplify residents’ concerns, answer their questions and celebrate their triumphs,” Farber said. “I’m excited to steward this beloved publication, expand coverage, explore new ways of engaging with readers and think more deeply about how best to serve all the people who care about Berkeley’s history, present and future.”

As Berkeleyside’s managing editor, Farber has led on many aspects of newsroom management, including pushing for ambitious journalism, nurturing reporters — among them Ally Markovich, who was an early-stage reporter when she joined Berkeleyside and left with a James Madison Freedom of Information award under her belt for investigating teacher misconduct in the Berkeley school district — overseeing the launch of a comprehensive wildfire guide and two weekly newsletters — “The Scene” and “This Week in Berkeley” — and elevating standards across the board.  

Before joining Berkeleyside, Farber was editor of the Southwest Journal, a biweekly community newspaper serving 21 Minneapolis neighborhoods. While there, he led coverage of the killing of George Floyd and launched a special reporting project that tracked the pandemic’s toll on the community by recording the personal stories of 18 teachers, medical professionals, laid-off workers and other local residents whose daily lives were in a state of flux. In 2020, the paper’s staff won eight awards in a contest held by the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists — more than any other non-daily newspaper in the state. 

He has held roles as the web editor of a pair of commercial real estate and legal newspapers, where he wrote a regular political and legal history column, and, before that, was local editor of news sites run by Twin Cities Patch.

The Cityside leadership team selected Farber after conducting a thorough, open recruitment process, in line with the organization’s commitment to transparency and equity in its hiring practices.  

Farber currently lives in Berkeley with his wife and 1-year-old son. His relationship with the city goes back a long way, as he spent two weeks every year of his youth visiting his great aunt and uncle on Scenic Avenue, cardboarding down the stone slide in Codornices Park and dining at Bongo Burger.