The blue vase that stands at the top of the exedra marks the physical center of Piedmont, just as the news source called the Piedmont Exedra hopes to become central to the community online. On Thanksgiving Day, a group of Piedmont residents launched The Piedmont Exedra, an independent, hyperlocal news website, founder Mary Ireland said.

“We had heard for many years that people were wanting online and more varied news, [as well as] different editorial coverage than what we currently have,” Ireland said.

The Exedra hired three reporters with experience in local journalism and plan to hire more, Ireland said.

“We are using this to amplify our sense of community and our sense of connectedness,” Ireland said. “We think it provides a civic good for the community.”

The Exedra is not a non-profit, establishing themselves as a Social Purpose Organization (SPO) which allows for more fiscal flexibility. They sell advertising and offer sponsorships to continue running the site, Ireland said.

“But we are very clear about our mission. It is not for profit,” Ireland said. “We are not in business to make money. We are in business to provide a civic good.”

The Exedra was created to be an unbiased, nonpartisan, independent source of journalism, said co-founder and chairman of the board of directors Eric Sullivan.

“We will have multiple leadership boards, which will ensure that more than one viewpoint is presented on complicated issues,” Sullivan said.

In addition to providing local news, the Exedra works to inform the community about statewide governance. They pull stories from other news sites to feature Bay Area and California news on their website, Ireland said.

“We think it’s important that citizens know what’s happening beyond [Piedmont],” Ireland said.

The Piedmont Post is one local newspaper that keeps the community informed of community events, schools, arts, sports, and more. The Post is a weekly subscription-based print newspaper.

Because the Exedra is online, they publish in a more timely manner than a print paper is able to. The Exedra utilizes Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as a part of their outreach. This is what makes them unique, said the Exedra’s social media contributor senior Margaret Faust.

“There aren’t any other news sources in Piedmont right now that are as instant [as the Exedra],” Faust said. “Our world moves so fast, and our news needs to move fast as well.”

Being online also allows the Exedra to be constantly accessible.

“You can read it on your phone; you can get it any time,” contributor Stephen Miller said.

The Exedra plans to explore additional mediums like photo and video, which are more user-interactive, Miller said.

“It intends to harness the user-generated side of the world,” Miller said. “We are all online, and the same phones you use to read stuff could be the same phones you can publish and broadcast from.”

Editor and publisher of the Piedmont Post Gray Cathrall said that the online news source should be very well received.

“People should be excited about it,” Cathrall said. “If it gives them an opportunity to learn more, all the better.”

In addition to local news written by professional journalists, the Exedra also provides content that truly represents the voices of the Piedmont community, Ireland said. They publish columns, recipes, and even book reviews written by Piedmont citizens.

“It’s important that when we set out to do this, we wanted to make sure this was a community effort, not just a single person or a single voice,” Ireland said.

Cathrall said that the community is remarkable for valuing quality journalism.

“It speaks to the integrity of the members of the community,” Cathrall said.