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The San Francisco Bay Area is known worldwide as the epicenter of technological innovation. Now, to the list that runs from electronics to computers, software and biotechnology, one can add a stunning innovation in journalism.

What's up? Recall that the Bay Area offers one of the more extreme examples of decline of the traditional press. The San Francisco Chronicle is shrinking in every dimension, and may soon shrink away completely. The Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News, the other urban metros, are only slightly better off. This situation has led to widespread concerns about the future of journalism, and for some with a very hyperbolic nature, concerns about the future of democracy.

This challenge has been met by an audacious piece of philanthropy and a unique alliance. The funding is $5 million from Warren Hellman, a very successful San Francisco investor. The alliance will unite the Journalism School of the University of California with the local public radio and public television stations. The troops will be the students at the Journalism School.

In the initial scenario, the students would cover the police beat and the city council meetings, they would do local investigation, and their reporting would appear on public TV and in public radio news. Then, shortly after this story broke, the print piece was filled in. The New York Times has scheduled for 2010, in the Bay Area, the first of what is envisioned as a family of regional editions. The Times will continue to use its San Francisco Bureau for stories of national interest. But the UC Berkeley journalism students will cover the local news for the local audience for the Times San Franciscion edition.

Adding it up, while it looks like the traditional press business model is a dead duck, it may soon be replaced by what amounts to a system of news by student interns. Will wonders never cease.