Category: Media
Posted inMedia

A 1950s-60s Golden Age for newspapers?

by Jay Thorwaldson

MEMORIES: It was more like fool’s gold, recalls a veteran Bay Area journalist and teacher

If there was ever a “Golden Age of Newspapers,” it was long before my half century in journalism and  if there was, “golden” referred to advertising revenue when newspapers were the primary means of getting out a commercial or personal message. In terms of quality, I don’t think there ever was  a “Golden Age,” although from our tarnished times of confronting a digital tsunami, looking back may seem brighter than looking forward.

Posted inBay Area, Environment, Media, Transportation

Safe Harbor

by News Partner

Welcoming porpoises back to San Francisco Bay

Cavallo Point at Fort Baker is not just a place to watch sailboats go by as the morning sun illuminates the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s also a great place to watch the water surge in and out with the tides. And with a little patience, you might see a black dorsal fin cut the swirling water, followed by another, smaller fin. 

Posted inArts & Culture, Climate Change, Environment, Government & Politics, Media

Global warming urban landscapes too real for U.S. officials

by Eric Klein and Justin Beck

RADIO DOCUMENTARY / SLIDESHOW: Artist Anthony Holdsworth, who painted a series of urban landscapes that depicted a future San Francisco flooded by rising seas, was invited to show his work last year inside the new “green” San Francisco Federal Building at Seventh and Mission streets. But before the opening reception, the show was ordered taken down. He said the image in one of his paintings, of oil burning on a flooded sidewalk in front of the building was too similar to the news footage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for federal authorities to bear. Undeterred, Holdsworth is mounting a new art show at the cafe at SFMOMA.

Posted inMedia, Media Meltdown, News

Harder to Chronicle: fewer reporters cover more territory as Hearst, Media News reduce coverage overlap

by Angela Hart

BYGONE BUREAUS: 8 of 9 local offices of the San Francisco Chronicle shuttered in last decade

This story appeared in the spring print edition as part of the Public Press’ media package of stories.

The days of the major daily newspapers in the Bay Area battling on each others’ home turf for domination is over, as consolidation and staff reductions forced them to slash bureaus and zoned editions. The San Francisco Chronicle, which a decade ago had nine news bureaus scattered across the entire Bay Area,  now just has one, in Oakland. And in San Mateo County, where the pressroom used to be packed with reporters from radio, TV and newspapers, most days there is only a single reporter from a regional wire service.

Posted inBay Area, Labor, Media, Media Meltdown

Story of a survivor: coastal paper maintains civic coverage despite cuts

by Tom Honig

This article appeared in the spring print edition as part of the Public Press’ media package of stories.  

When the Santa Cruz Sentinel was sold by Ottaway Newspapers to the ever-expanding MediaNews Group, editor Tom Honig didn’t like what he was seeing. The printing plant was shuttered, layoffs were orders and the newspaper moved out of Santa Cruz itself to nearby Scotts Valley. He made himself one of the layoff victims. But looking back, he now sees that civic journalism has survived thanks to the hard work of the smaller staff.

Posted inLabor, Media, Media Meltdown

Editors’ note: reporting on ourselves

by Editors

ON THE MEDIA REPORTING PROJECT: Traditionally, news organizations have drawn clear distinctions between opinion and factual reporting. And in the event of even the appearance of a conflict of interest, the reporter is reassigned. The problem is, the media are powerful. What journalists write and say can make the difference in clarifying complex public policies, helping consumers make wise decisions and preventing social and even criminal injustice. The Public Press commissioned a team of experienced journalists to report — and in some cases reflect on — the rapidly changing media landscape. All have conflicts of interest in that they make their living, as best they can, in what remains of the news industry. Nonetheless, we thought that this was an important story to tell.

Posted inMedia

I.F. Stone’s radical idea

by Michael Levitin

ESSAY: He believed that solid reporting could overcome the financial turmoil that plagued newspapers

In January of 1953, writing in the first edition of I.F. Stone’s Weekly, the Washington investigative journalist Isadore Feinstein — universally known as I.F. Stone — declared: “This weekly represents an attempt to keep alive through a difficult period the kind of independent radical journalism represented in various ways by PM, the New York Star and the Daily Compass,” three esteemed publications that for financial reasons had recently shut down. “This new enterprise,” he wrote, “embodies the hope that by beginning on a rock-bottom basis it will prove possible to survive and expand. The bald economics of daily newspaper publishing is enough to make the stoutest heart quail.” And for 19 years, week after week, Stone delivered audiences across North America and around the world a four-page newspaper pumped with meticulously documented research and witty analyses on the thorniest political subjects of his time, from McCarthyism to Vietnam. Nobody has rivaled his effort since.

Posted inMedia, Media Meltdown

Union leader says jobs will not return, urges media workers to reinvent selves

by Shawn Gaynor

LABOR: Organized labor needs to do more to help freelancers, says Guild officer

This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories. 

Former San Francisco Chronicle science writer and union activist Carl Hall took a buyout from the newspaper in 2009. He is now executive officer of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents union newsroom workers at Bay Area newspapers. He talked about changes in the Bay Area’s print news landscape and the future of unionized journalism.

Posted inLabor, Media, Media Meltdown

Half of Bay Area newspaper jobs gone in last decade

Avatar photo by Jeremy Adam Smith and Michael Stoll

MEDIA CENSUS: Newspapers hardest hit, losing nearly 4,000 workers

This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories. 

State and federal labor statistics show that employment among Bay Area media workers fell 43 percent since 2001, a result of massive restructuring at local news outlets whose financial losses measured in the billions of dollars. Newspapers were hit the hardest, shedding upwards of 4,000 employees. As dozens of papers merged in an effort to cut costs, reporters who used to compete for scoops found their jobs redundant. While employment appears to have risen in the television and radio sector over all, journalists among them did not fare so well, state employment data suggest.

Posted inClimate Change, Media

Apocalyptic beliefs hasten the end of the world

by Jason Mark

Commentary: Americans’ Judgment Day visions make it harder to gain traction on climate action

Billboards and bus stop ads, plastered in cities from Florida to California, announce that this coming Saturday, May 21, will be Judgment Day. This “guarantee” actually comes from an 89-year-old Christian fundamentalist, radio host, and co-founder of the Oakland-based Family Radio network, whose outfit has paid for 5,500 billboards worldwide (including many in the Bay Area). That thousands of people around the world are convinced that tomorrow a massive global earthquake is a sign — but not of the biblical sort. Fringe religious rhetoric confuses the very real and urgent issues of environmental degradation and climate change.

 

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