El Tímpano

Mission

Through innovative approaches to local journalism and civic engagement, El Tímpano surfaces community members’ stories, questions, and concerns on local and national issues, and provides information relevant to their needs.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, El Tímpano’s Spanish-language SMS reporting platform has disseminated vital news, information, and resources on COVID-19 to the communities most impacted locally by the current public health and economic crises. Since the start of the pandemic, our audience has quadrupled. Today nearly 10% of Oakland’s Spanish-speaking households subscribe, and in the past year, one in two subscribers has written in with a question, a story, or words of gratitude for keeping them informed.

We’re just getting started and are pursuing growth in 2022 to grow our newsroom, train hundreds more immigrants to halt the spread of misinformation, launch our Mam language service to better serve Oakland’s indigenous Mayan immigrants, and expand our footprint to the wider Bay Area.

About our journalism

By supporting El Tímpano, you are supporting our vision of equitable information access, of local journalism that serves and reflects the diversity of our communities, and of a Bay Area where every voice is valued.