Add One More to the Endangered List: S.F. Chronicle
According to the article, “Hearst said the Chronicle lost $50 million last year and is hemorrhaging even more money so far this year.”
Hearst is trying to negotiate with its unions to be able to cut costs substantially, including implementing “significant layoffs.”
The Hearst newspaper empire was historically based in San Francisco, where a young William Randolph Hearst, while still a college student convinced his father to allow him to run the San Francisco Examiner in 1887, after his Dad won control of the paper as payment of a gambling debt.
By late in the 20th century, the Examiner lost out to the San Francisco Chronicle, a daily founded by the de Young brothers back in 1865, the year Lincoln was assassinated.
So the Hearst empire simply dropped the Examiner and took over the Chronicle. Such are the cycles of history that as soon as the Chronicle folds, the Examiner (which now is a free paper) will finally be the only daily in town.
The great columnist Herb Caen, who passed in 1997, must be turning over in his grave tonight.
In addition to serving as a BNET Media analyst/blogger, David Weir is a veteran journalist and the author of several books. Weir is a co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation.
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