Media Meltdown - San Francisco Public Press

From the Newsroom

Public Press coverage of Bay Area media meltdown featured on national #wjchat

06.25.2011

By Michael Stoll, Executive director

This week’s #wjchat, a weekly chat for Web journalists on Twitter, was on a topic that is significant to journalists and nonjournalists alike: the future of journalism jobs.
The chat was founded by Robert Hernandez, assistant professor of professional practice at the University of Southern California, Annenberg’s School for Communication and Journalism, and Kim Bui, social media and communication editor at KPCC 89.3-FM in Pasadena.
According to the organizers, the focus for this week’s conversation was inspired by a series of articles on the Bay Area media landscape that was published by the San Francisco Public Press this spring.
@wjchat This #wjchat we’re talking the future of journalism jobs – inspired by @sfpublicpress recent report: http://bit.ly/jvMQgK Send us Qs!
The stories in the package include: a quantitative and qualitative analysis of how news organizations in the Bay Area are coping with smaller staff, the influence and emergence of thousands of new media startups in the area, and the impact of the shortage of ad-revenue on local broadcast journalists.

Media

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

06.02.2011

By Angela Hart, Reporter

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.

Bay Area

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

06.02.2011

By Tom Honig, Board member

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.

Labor

Editors’ note: reporting on ourselves

05.31.2011

By Editors, 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.

Media

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

05.24.2011

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.

Labor

Half of Bay Area newspaper jobs gone in last decade

05.23.2011

By Jeremy Adam Smith, Freelance writer and Michael Stoll, Executive director

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.

Media

10 years on, a daily Chronicle 60% lighter; Mercury News shed 66%

05.13.2011

By Erica Reder, Reporter and Justin Morrison

Shrinking newspapers: Both papers lost sections, pages and advertisers
This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories.
In early May, when the official industry rankings came out, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News touted slight gains in Sunday circulation after years of declines, suggesting that the local newspaper industry just might be coming back. But the number of papers thrown on Bay Area doorsteps tells only part of the story. Even the most optimistic interpretation of readership statistics can’t hide the publications’ anemic page counts. Both papers have shrunk dramatically in the past 10 years.

Media

5,000 new media startups — can one save local news?

05.12.2011

By David Weir, Journalist

RISE OF THE NEWS MACHINES: The future has arrived and it’s called the Age of Data
This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories.
San Francisco sits at the epicenter of a brand new tech boom revolving around several thousand variously funded startup companies. The organizer of the premier mixer for entrepreneurs in the city, Christian Perry of SF Beta, estimates that there are between 4,000 and 6,000 such outfits in the city. (His current mailing approaches 5,000.) Many other ventures can be found in the Valley or in tech-focused business strips all over the East Bay and Marin.At the same time that all this feverish activity is taking place — and some would say because of it — there have been massive dislocations among the people who traditionally dug up the news. So how might these new ventures impact the future of journalism?

Labor

One million missing stories

05.11.2011

By Jeremy Adam Smith, Freelance writer

POST PINK SLIPS: Displaced journalists see opportunities to cover community on their own
This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories.
Since 2000, metro newspapers across the country have laid off an estimated 14,000 (out of 56,400) editors and reporters — a number that does not include journalists working for wire services, weekly newspapers or other media, all of which have suffered their own losses — according to blogger Ken Doctor, who writes the influential Newsonomics blog for the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard. There are simply fewer trained eyes on city halls, police departments, schools and corporate boardrooms. As Doctor writes on his blog, “That news-gathering … is what’s key to community information and understanding, fairly prerequisite in our struggling little democracy.”

From the Newsroom

The news, old and new, is our theme in the Public Press third print edition

05.11.2011

By Michael Stoll, Executive director

Today we are proud to announce the publication of Issue No. 3 of the San Francisco Public Press — still in glorious full-color broadsheet.
The special section in the issue: a team project on the fall and possible rebirth of Bay Area news media. Jeremy Adam Smith reports on how half of Bay Area newspaper jobs evaporated on the last decade, while David Weir delves into some of the more than 5,000 San Francisco-based new media startups. The media project took a team of eight people months to report. It grew out of the work we did this winter to help produce the Bay Area Journalist Census for NOVA, a workforce development agency in Sunnyvale.

Education

As ad revenues and staffs shrink, TV news turns to technology

05.11.2011

By Mineko Brand, Multimedia Reporter

BROADCASTING: Multi-person news teams turn into solo ‘VJs’
This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories.
Local TV stations, the No.1 news source for people in the Bay Area, are scrambling to adapt their news formats and slash budgets to fend off the triple threat of diminishing ad revenue, growing Internet adoption and cable news. To do so, they are using technology to turn multi-person news teams into solo “VJs.” News directors say it is the best use of dwindling resources and gains in technology. But critics say the cost to local viewers is less information about substantial topics and more crime and weather coverage.