When the Press Club started this blog a few years ago, we were all alone. Nobody was covering the Bay Area news business. But in the past few months, four excellent online sites have started covering this beat.

• Baynewser, a spin-off of the NY-based Mediabistro, covers everything but emphasizes the online news business. It’s staffed by E.B. Boyd and Jason Turbow, who are paid by the post.

• The SF Appeal is a 4-month-old online newspaper that has an entertaining media section. SF Appeal is brainchild of Eve Batey (left), former Chronicle ME for online and co-founding editor and lead writer for SFist.com. The Appeal’s media section includes several Chronicle critiques, such as “John Cote’s Trashy Ledes.”

• SFWeekly also has a media section worth bookmarking, with postings that often include original reporting. Joe Eskenazi’s byline shows up in this section frequently. Check out his take on SPJ’s decision to honor “two dead guys and a 90-year-old.“

• Rich “Big Vinny” Lieberman (right) is a sportscaster who writes about the local media scene, particularly sports journalism and broadcasting. He’s hosted by SFGate.com, which gives him a large audience when a link to his column is featured on the first page of that portal. He gets his share of scoops, such as story about Tony Salvador’s firing last week.

Our competition is so good, maybe the Press Club’s Web site is obsolete?