My quest to bring more (and better!) media coverage to and about the Santa Clarita Valley will get a significant boost in the months ahead as I’ve been invited to become a contributing writer to the popular Los Angeles blog, LAist.com.

My new job? Chronicling Santa Clarita news on developments, crime, controversies, politics, media and much more for a mostly Los Angeles readership.

LAist bills itself as the “most popular blog in Los Angeles” and it’s not hard to see why. The site enjoys some 1.8 million page-views per month and it’s built a large and impressive Angeleno readership since it debuted in July of 2004. It has over a dozen regular writers, including some who cover topics about Los Angeles but live in Santa Clarita.

LAist Editor Zach Behrens, himself an alum of the City of Santa Clarita and CalArts, told me in an email that the SCV “is the fourth largest city in LA County and extremely news thin, it needs some love regionally.”

Since local newspapers like the Times and the Daily News don’t seem to give a fig about Santa Clarita despite our growth and the interesting stories that occur here, I agreed and decided to sign on.

It’s going to be challenging. First off, I have to find local stories that may be of interest to a larger, Los Angeles audience. Then I’ve got to write them for that audience, many of whom may not even know where Santa Clarita is, let alone the various communities in our valley.

Then there’s the whole attitude of LAist, which is more irreverent, scrappy and dare-I-say hip than SCVTalk.

But I love writing and greater exposure of Santa Clarita can only be a good thing.

SCVTalk.com will continue as normal with Daily Briefs and other stories.

But, it’s safe to say that I may not have as much time to write for SCVTalk, and that’s where you come in. Several of you write well in the comments, and the recent city council election has taught me that perhaps this website could use some more diversity.

Maybe you’re an SCVTalk.com reader who has thought, “I could write better or more interesting articles than Jeff!” Well, here’s your chance to step up. Who would like a shot at writing articles for this site?

If you’re interested, shoot me an email at jeff@scvtalk.com

Jeff