Hoodline joins SFist under the ownership of Impress3 Media, expanding its hyperlocal reporting

Hoodline joins SFist under the ownership of Impress3 Media, expanding its hyperlocal reportingHoodline + SFist 4eva.
Zack Chen
Published on October 13, 2020

Impress3 Media is honored to carry on the legacy of Hoodline following the acquisition from Nextdoor, announced today.

When Impress3 acquired and relaunched SFist in early 2019, the future of that quirky local news publication was uncertain. SFist had been lying dormant for over a year, its writers and editors had moved on to other publications or new occupations, and its sister sites from the greater Gothamist network already had new owners, including the likes of Chance the Rapper and New York Public Radio, among others.

In the roughly 18 months since its relaunch, SFist has grown to its largest readership to date. The combined entities of SFist and Hoodline will collectively reach millions of local readers and be among the highest-trafficked Bay Area news sources, surpassing most other publications in the area. As one of the founders of Impress3 and as a San Francisco native, that is something that I am very proud of only because I have the utmost respect for those publishers and the writers who work tirelessly to keep local news alive for the rest of us.

As Hoodline and SFist team up as two separate, sister entities, things will remain largely unchanged on both. As it was with SFist, our goal is not to change the voice or reshape the type of content that our readers love, but to help amplify our writers’ stories and ensure that the business behind local news remains sustainable. This is especially important in these times.

As the pandemic drags on, the local news industry has not been able to avoid its path. For many local publishers, things have gone from precarious to endangered. Our company's ability to save some of our favorites along the way brings us some relief. Hoodline is a news source that we at Impress3 have read and enjoyed for years, so adding these amazing local writers and such a robust brand to our network of publications can only make us stronger together.

At Impress3, our whole team is very excited to be working with Hoodline’s writers, as we not only continue publishing originally reported stories here in SF, but also help expand this type of neighborhood coverage across the whole Bay Area. SFist’s Jay Barmann will act as Hoodline’s interim editor, overseeing largely the same writing staff that readers of Hoodline have come to know and love.


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Impress3 Media was founded in 2012 and began publishing online industry magazines shortly after. The company later grew to develop gig-based automation processes, known within the company as the Autonomous Turk, that earned it and its founders recognition among the 50 Best Startups according to Entrepreneur Magazine's E360, an award as one of the 20 fastest growing software companies on the Inc. 5000, acknowledgment as a thought leader on the Forbes Technology Council, and respect from Forbes reporters as a “method of publishing that could help media properties monetize their content more effectively.” When Impress3 made its foray into local news, the company decided to maintain a more traditional editorial process, despite a background in software. It is with a deep understanding and respect for what goes into news publishing that Impress3 seeks to continue to revitalize local news across the country.