San Francisco Bay Guardian shuts down

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Bay Guardian weekly newspaper, a leading progressive voice in the city for 48 years, is closing for financial reasons, its publisher announced Tuesday.

Publisher Glenn Zuehls of the San Francisco Media Co., which has operated the paper since 2012, released a statement saying the following:

“The decision to close the Bay Guardian was made recently, and only after we put in two years of efforts to keep it alive. It is the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my 20-year newspaper career. San Francisco — and the world — was a very different place when the Bay Guardian began publishing in 1966.

“Many of the causes the paper championed over the decades have shifted and evolved. The political and social climate of the city, in part as a result of the paper's coverage, has become more open, transparent and inclusive. The Bay Guardian leaves a legacy as a forceful advocate for social change that will always be a source of pride for everyone who was part of it or who valued its voice in our community.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/San-Francisco-Bay-Guardian-shuts-down-5822025.php

[KamaAina]

1. D'oh!

One of my senior SF correspondents labeled the remaining free weekly "SF Meekly".

I'm wondering if there might be a space for a new progressive publication in The City. I humbly offer my two years' experience on the University of New Haven News.

edit: Perhaps it could be distributed in the East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond) as well. Of course, they still have East Bay Express.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. The writing was on the wall as soon as it was acquired.

Reading the Bay Guardian and East Bay Express was how I learned the politics of the area. SF Weekly, eh. Sometimes the restaurant articles are informative but that's appropriate for fish wrap.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. A sign of the times for traditional media.

Are we going to rely on the Huffington Post to replace it?

[melm00se]

3. IMO the "traditional" media

has done this to themselves.

so many news outlets provide their content online for free. This limits the incentive for a reader to pay a subscription fee to take possession of their work product (less revenue) and their usefulness as an advertising medium (lowering their revenue even further).

Unless print media outlets determine how to balance their accessibility with their need for revenue, this trend is only going to accelerate.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Bay Guardian was a free weekly. n/t

[melm00se]

7. who relied on

advertising revenue as it's main source of revenue.

as they had a website and the increase in the use of portable devices to access their content, this lessened (if not eliminated) their attractiveness to advertisers. They require a return on their advertising purchase.
No return, no spend.
No spend, no revenue.
No revenue, no way to pay the bills.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. They were purchased by a competitor (also free distribution)

and those publications are still in place. IMHO in this case it has everything to do with cutting out competition by buying it, then eliminating it.

[pinto]

6. A loss to journalism. (nt)

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Oh no! Sad. I loved that paper.

[sakabatou]

10. Damn

[blkmusclmachine]

11. Soon, it will be all rightwing, all the time, from sea to shining sea.

[TomCADem]

12. Corporations Continue To Boycott Advertising In Progressive Media

Look at Israel where Sheldon Adelson essentially runs his right wing media properties at a loss in order to help promote his right wing views. Journalism is dying only to be replaced with the growth of paid PR.

[stranger81]

13. Now that is a damn shame.

Another progressive media voice in San Francisco goes silent. Far too much of that these days around here.