Frances L. Dinkelspiel (born 1959) is an American journalist, author and founder of the local news website Berkeleyside.
[3] Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California is a biography of Dinkelspiel's great-great-grandfather, Isaias W. Hellman, who emigrated from Germany to California in 1859 and became one of the most prominent financiers on the West Coast, eventually owning Wells Fargo Bank.
[16] In 2013 and 2014, the Berkeleyside staff won the "Community journalism (print/text)" award from the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California (SPJ Norcal).
[17][18] In 2016, Dinkelspiel and colleague Emilie Raguso jointly won the SPJ Norcal "Explanatory journalism (print/online small division)" category for their coverage of homelessness in Berkeley.
In 2017, the Dinkelspiel won the San Francisco Press Club "Digital Media, Series or Continuing Coverage" category for her series titled “The fall of Premier Cru.”[20] In 2018, Dinkelspiel won the SPJ Norcal "Longform storytelling (print/online small division)" category for her article titled "One day, one night: The fuse that lit the Battles of Berkeley", which covered a riot caused by the appearance of the right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.