Big news in the citizen-media world: Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere is being acquired by Backfence.com, which will expand to five sites covering the San Francisco Bay Area (the first in Palo Alto in May).
This appears to be a good outcome for Bayosphere, which looked to be in mortal danger when Gillmor, former technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and author of the book "We the Media," decided to shift his attention from the commercial enterprise to starting up the nonprofit Center for Citizen Media earlier this year.
Bayosphere is an online community news and discussion site that embodies the principles of "citizen journalism" (or participatory or grassroots media). Gillmor and partner Michael Goff weren't able to make the site soar before Gillmor shifted his focus. Investors in Bayosphere are Gillmor, Goff, Mitch Kapor and the Omidyar Network. No details are available on the deal's financials.
In a phone call this afternoon, Gillmor said he'll continue to blog in the anchor spot for Bayosphere and serve as a consultant.
Backfence is a venture capital-backed citizen media company currently operating sites in several suburban Washington, D.C., communities. Taking the Backfence model national has long been in the company's plans, and this acquisition takes it outside of its home base.
The existing Bayosphere interface has been replaced with Backfence's look and feel. Here's the site, and here's Gillmor's blog item on the acquisition.
(Disclosure: Gillmor is an investor and on the board of advisors for my company, the Enthusiast Group.)
