In this case, Mary Anne Ostrom of the San Jose Mercury News is "Silicon Valley's top political writer," says Capitol Alert's Peter Hecht. Ostrom is joining the gubernatorial campaign of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Hecht:

Ostrom's new gig was another blow to California's dwindling political press corps. Respected politics veteran John Wildermuth of the San Francisco Chronicle is taking a buyout. Zachary Coile of the Chronicle's Washington bureau is going to work as communications director for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. And Jordan Rau, state capitol reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has signed on with the Kaiser Family Foundation's new Kaiser Health News.

Add to that list Dan Morain, who left the LAT's Sacramento bureau to be communications director for Consumer Attorneys of California, and Aurelio Rojas, who left the Sacramento Bee to be communications director for Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

New player, maybe: PublicCEO.com is a new website based in Sacramento that says it will offer "unique, daily updated content written by local government experts from around the state. PublicCEO.com covers California’s 480 incorporated cities, 58 counties and 2,300 special districts." Too soon to tell.