The media world has dramatically changed since the Bay Guardians antitrust lawsuit against the SF Weekly went to trial in January 2008. At the time, a Beyond Chron article proclaimed that nothing less than the future of independent media was at stake.

But even the Guardians $15 million damage award could not save it. When Bruce Brugmann made over $2 million in profits from the papers sale in April 2012, he acknowledged, “Publishing is hard now, advertising is not easy. Not everyone is interested in buying newspapers in this country.”

Brugmanns profits came from selling the papers real estate, not its reporting. And last week Village Voice media sold the SF Weekly for a likely smaller sum than its litigation costs in the Guardian lawsuit (it also sold the Seattle Weekly, and is rumored to have the Village Voice on the block).

Todays young people do not need to pick up a newspaper to learn whats happening in the city, as they have smartphones, computers and/or apps. Both papers once made gobs of money from escort and dating ads. But these ads have shifted to online sites, and Village Voice medias current financial crisis stems from its being charged with operating the biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States.

In the pre-Internet days, cafes were filled with people reading newspapers while drinking coffee. Today, laptops dominate the caf scene, and even novels are read on phones.

The print editions of the Bay Guardian and SF Weekly are not sustainable, and will either merge or keep separate online identities.

The Old Media World

The SF Chronicle continues its print edition despite losing millions annually because of the Hearst Corporations real estate venture with Forest City to develop its large 5th and Mission holdings. Its a lot easier to sell this massive development project if a) the Chronicle can promote it in its print edition and b) the projects office towers can be justified as subsidizing the survival of a print newspaper.

But I have come across nobody in the journalism field who believes that the Chronicles print edition has much of a future. Young people coming to the Bay Area are not becoming subscribers, and whats left of the papers declining circulation base is akin to the national Republican Party—it is disproportionately white, over 60 years of age, and not a leading target of advertisers.

The Chronicles print edition will either lose its independent status and become part of the newspaper groups led by the San Jose Mercury News and the SF Examiner, or be entirely replaced by sfgate.com.

The New Media World

Many argue that the online world is dependent on traditional newspaper content. They look at the many newspaper articles linked or reprinted on the Huffington Post and see old media reporting as driving traffic on online sites.

Yet the Huffington Post could survive quite well in the absence of most traditional newspapers. So could Salon, Politico, Daily Kos and other popular news sites. While the New York Times and other newspapers do provide information and stories vital to public policy debates, this is not a trait usually ascribed to the San Francisco Chronicle or most of the nations daily print publications (which itself is a factor in their declining circulation and revenue).

And while print newspapers disappear, online news sources face their own serious competition from smartphones and social media like Facebook and Twitter. Websites that took readers from traditional newspapers by shortening the news now are challenged by rapidly updated tweets and Facebook postings. This will likely mean even shorter online stories, as people sending texts and working on their own social media accounts are too busy to read longer stories.

I love print newspapers and wish their owners had been more visionary in addressing the challenges of online and social media competition. But the cost conscious owners of the Chronicle, Bay Guardian and SF Weekly are unlikely to invest in the type of real journalism that compels the attention of Bay Area readers—-leaving their print futures even more precarious.

Randy Shaw is Editor of Beyond Chron

Article source: http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/The_Impending_Demise_of_San_Francisco_Newspapers_10848.html

By Byard Duncan

Last Friday, amid an avalanche of accidental entendres (One of these, directed at a female SF Weekly correspondent: “Want to go down and see what happens to you next?”; another, aimed at no one in particular: “I’m really not that into VIP-ness”) and crude cultural allusions (“It’s like a Shakespearean fuckin’ playhouse!”), Bay Area real estate developer and restaurateur Jack Knowles found time to show a small group of local journalists around his promising new venue at 777 Valencia St. in the Mission.

Officially, the space will be called The Chapel when it opens on Oct. 4. Its first weekend will feature an impressive lineup of musicians, from Elvis Costello to Steve Earle, and will correspond with that weekend’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festivities. The main selling point, however, is The Chapel’s status as a sort of home-away-from-home for New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which will accompany the musicians in October and perform in residence at the venue three or four times per year.

With its official opening just two weeks away, the space appears gutted and skeletal. Its exterior is sprinkled with stickers and wheat paste murals; and wires, construction lights, and bags of Quikrete line the floors inside. Only a few of the walls are painted, and most of the windows remain boarded up. The stage area itself — a church-like auditorium with 40-foot ceilings, red walls, oak buttresses, and plenty of exposed plywood — will be beautiful when it’s complete. The only remaining challenge is getting it to that point, and quickly.

Knowles, a compact man who spits when he talks and has a cotton candy whorl of hazel hair, doesn’t appear too concerned. After popping a bottle of warm champagne in the unpainted, un-insulated bar area, he proposes a toast. “So we can all be together at night! And eat and drink together!”

From here, he leads the bewildered journalists upstairs to the balcony area (all things considered, a stunning sketch of a mezzanine, dotted with paint buckets, more construction lights, etc.), and explains his rationale for buying such a resplendent space in the middle of a recession.

“My financial people think I’m a idiot!” he exclaims, spitting a little more. “But the thing is, I didn’t want to punk out. Everybody was punking out.”

In one corner of the balcony, he points to a patch of exposed sheetrock, which will serve as a sound insulator during concerts. He explains that one of his workers’ main challenges has been laying enough sheetrock in time for October. They’ve been working exhaustively, he says, to further insulate the venue in time.

“Sheetrocking around the clock?” one journalist offers.

“Yeah,” Knowles replies, unsmiling.

The tour is briefly interrupted by a minor verbal tussle with one worker who may or may not show up the next day if he is not promptly paid. Knowles convenes with him while the journalists wait. Overheard: “I’m counting on you to lay a lot of rock,” and “Stick with me, I’ll stick with you.” The issue appears to get resolved, and Knowles returns to his tour. “I don’t feel good when no one’s working,” he says. “It makes me nervous.”

If indeed Knowles doesn’t punk out, and the space comes together in time for its slated opening, it could breathe life into a section of the city that is perplexingly, frustratingly devoid of serious large-scale music venues. The press release that one of four PR handlers distributes at the door includes a quote from Knowles about San Francisco’s “evolving” musical history. “We believe the Mission is now to San Francisco what North Beach and the Haight have been to the city’s cultural history in years past, and we’re proud to be here.”

Pride notwithstanding, there’s work to be done. A shitload of it. Yet Knowles, with his impressive restaurant resume, boundless energy and pitter-pattering arsenal of self promotions, just might be the man for the job.

Visit SF Weekly’s All Shook Down for more San Francisco music news.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/25/the-chapel-in-the-mission_n_1914290.html

It was time, said Bruce Brugmann, founder, editor and publisher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, “to turn things over to the next generation.”

The passing of the torch occurred Tuesday, when the independent weekly, started in 1962, said it is being acquired by the San Francisco Examiner, and that Brugmann and his wife, Co-Publisher Jean Dibble, were relinquishing their roles.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, but it made sense economically, and it made sense to Jean and me,” said Brugmann. “It’s the best way to keep the Guardian intact, and hopefully keep it alive for another generation.”

While the Guardian, which has a weekly circulation of 70,000, has stuck to its mission of “printing the news and raising hell,” it’s had a tougher time paying its bills.

“It’s been hard for us,” said Brugmann, who acknowledged the paper has been losing money, despite a multimillion-dollar antitrust settlement in January 2011 with rival SF Weekly, which was found to have been deliberately selling ads below cost to undercut the Bay Guardian.

Tough time for papers

“Publishing is hard now, advertising is not easy. Not everyone is interested in buying newspapers in this country.”

But the Examiner, which itself changed ownership just four months ago, was interested in the Bay Guardian. “Bruce and Jean built a great franchise, we recognize the value they built,” said Todd Vogt, the Examiner’s president and publisher. “And we’re believers in print.”

Vogt, who last week denied reports of an imminent sale, would not disclose financial details of the transaction (neither did Brugmann), which is set to close next month. He said the two papers would remain editorially separate and the Bay Guardian’s reporting staff of 30 would be untouched. Tim Redmond, a 30-year veteran of the paper, is taking over as editor and publisher.

“We have no intention of changing the editorial voice of the Guardian. If anything, a refreshed progressive voice is needed in the city,” Vogt said.

Both Brugmann and Vogt pointed to cost savings – the Bay Guardian will be printed on the Examiner’s presses, and its staff moved into the Examiner’s offices at 71 Stevenson St. – and to “synergies,” particularly around advertising.

Vogt said the two ad staffs will be kept separate, but “where there are opportunities to cross-sell, we will. I can see working together on advertorials and event sponsorships and so forth. There’s big potential, especially in the arts and entertainment community.”

Examiner is also free

The Examiner, owned by the Hearst Corp. until it bought The Chronicle in 2000, is a free, six-day-a-week paper with a weekday circulation of 75,000 to 190,000 and 255,000 on Sunday. In November, a consortium, SF Newspaper Co. LLC, co-owned by Vogt and other newspaper executives, purchased the Examiner from Clarity Media Group, owned by conservative billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz.

Under Vogt and Editor in Chief Stephen Buel, formerly an editor and part owner of the East Bay Express, the Examiner’s editorial stance has shifted away from its rightist bent under Anschutz. In business terms, Vogt has had to deal with the same financial issues confronting other daily papers.

“It’s been a challenge,” he said. “But our ad numbers have increased, and I really think there’s opportunity for local advertising growth.” An initial round of layoffs occurred soon after Vogt’s group acquired the Examiner, but none involved the reporting staff, he said.

One condition of the acquisition is that Brugmann stays involved with the Bay Guardian “and guides me a little in terms of the politics of the city,” Vogt said. “In my entire experience, nothing compares with politics in this city.”

Brugmann will no doubt be happy to oblige. “I’ll be helping out in any way I can,” he said. “I’ve already threatened to go over to City Hall more often.”

He’ll also be devoting more time to his Bruce Blog on the Bay Guardian’s website, as well as some outside writing. And he’s working with former Chronicle staffer Dick Rogers and others on setting up a brick-and-mortar Northern California journalism museum – a work in progress you can see at norcalmediamuseum.com.

History of journalism

“If someone doesn’t do this, much of the history of journalism in the Bay Area will be lost,” he said. “And I still have a lot of energy.”

Coincidentally, Brugmann’s old working haunt, the 27,000-square-foot Bay Guardian building on Potrero Hill, was sold this week for about $6.5 million to San Francisco real estate firm Union Property Capital. That’s close to a $2 million profit for Brugmann, who paid $4.7 million for the building in 2002, according to the San Francisco Business Times, which first reported the sale.

Brugmann wouldn’t confirm the numbers, but at least he and his wife have the beginnings of a nice little nest egg as they move on to the next stage of their careers, right?

“We also have some debts to deal with,” he replied. “That’s the problem nowadays with this business.”

Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Blogging at www.sfgate.com/columns/ bottomline. Facebook page: sfg.ly/doACKM. Tweeting: @andrewsross. bottomline@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/25/BUMS1O8UOE.DTL&type=business