May 23, 2007
Why Aren't You Paying For The Chron?
You know we love the Chronicle around here at SFist -- where else would we get breaking news updates, steal pictures, and follow the lives of the Gettys and Trainas?
So we're still very much in shock about the news that they're going to be laying off 25% of their workforce. The reason given was that they can't make enough money in advertising and other sources to cover the cost of putting out the paper.
Love it or hate it, the Chron's really the only game in town -- so why aren't you buying ads/subscribing to the paper? Or are you? SFists Jeremy and Rita bandy this question about below.
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SFist Jer: Please excuse the first-person singular. I personally know why I don't give the Chron my money -- I had a really crappy encounter with overzealous sales people more than seven years ago and I am still holding a grudge. Yes, I am that stubborn. No subscription to the print edition, no thank you, never.
Okay, I do enjoy some of the content, and would be happy to read the sfgate on a registration, ad-supported model. Not sure about paying for it -- maybe. I am addicted to Tim Goodman's column and blog, after all. More importantly, it's my perception that much of the problem at the paper is due to loss of classifieds from easy-to-use, and largely free, services like Craigslist. You know, if the Chron had an effective online version of its classifieds, I may well use them -- as a reader, and even as paying customer to place job ads or sell my comix/old stuff. But I won't pay for crappy navigation and I won't pay through the nose.
We are by no means experts -- but we know you guys can fill in the blanks and brainstorm. How would you save the San Francisco Chronicle? Does it merit being saved?
After the jump: SFist Rita on why she still loves the Chron -- and her thoughts on the content.
SFist Rita: I really do love reading the actual Chron -- even when it's a day where the entire National A section is articles recycled from third-rate news sources (the Cox News Service?), the B section is Matier and Ross reporting, "Willie Brown buys new hat," and the Datebook is the hell that is Luann. Because there's nothing better than opening up the paper over a cup of coffee at 7:30 in the morning and exclaiming, "Oh no, Ed Jew!" (which is how we came up with the new title for the Ed Jew column at SFist).
SFist wouldn't be anywhere without the Chronicle -- we need big media to tell us the stories so we can talk about them with you. We wouldn't be able to replace their reporting work, and furthermore, we don't think you'd want us to. I love the fact that the website is free and easy to navigate (if you've read the actual paper), and I love the blogs (hi Eve!) -- so what can we do to make sure they've got the money to provide I personally consider to be an essential public service?
Why not start, as Randy Shaw suggests, by making the content more relevant to actual San Franciscans? Why isn't there an op-ed columnist that covers San Francisco issues? (I'd totally apply for that job!) Why doesn't the Datebook section review film festivals or indie music shows? Why don't they do more in-depth coverage of local issues -- we always love the pieces explaining the SFPD or homelessness or the local politics scene? Why don't they talk about dot-com culture?
The Gothamist team started up with SFist because we thought there was a place for people to talk about those kinds of issues in this city -- San Franciscans who love San Francisco and feel engaged with the town. Shouldn't the Chron be approaching the city in the same way?
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"The Gothamist team started up with SFist because we thought there was a place for people to talk about those kinds of issues in this city -- San Franciscans who love San Francisco and feel engaged with the town. Shouldn't the Chron be approaching the city in the same way?"
Exactly. Once they begin doing this, then I will consider buying a subscription from them, and not one moment sooner. The concluding line of this post hits the nail on the head.
The Chron barely covers issues which are essential to the city and region, like transit.
It has hopeless and idiotic dreams of being a national paper, when it's not even the preeminent regional paper. Just look at the "John Edwards sells tickets to lecture at UC Davis" story their star political reporter just broke, which is currently on the top of the page at SFgate.com. National coverage? More like national trolling.
Transit coverage is main reason I read SFist. The Examiner, which as far as I can tell is written and edited by a team of high schoolers, at least bothers to run news about transit.
I would subscribe to the Chronicle, maybe, if they actually had focused investigative coverage of the city, something comparable to Matt Smith in the SF Weekly. Matier and Ross = half a lazy reporter for the price of two. David Lazarus does decent investigative consumer reporting, and he's the only columnist I think is worth saving.
I would also subscribe to the Chronicle if they published pictures of Phil Bronstein's foot after the Komodo dragon ate it. That would be awesome.
The reason no one pays for the Chron? They don't have to. The Chron doesn't have a business plan. Online ads or classifieds were eating (traditional newspaper revenue source) their lunch for years, and now they make the layoff?
Also, the Chron has had no direct competition since the quasi-legal annexation-then-expulsion of the dessicated Examiner. For years there's been no reason for the Chron to fight for readers, no reason to do anything but reap the rewards of their unlegal monopoly.
Now they're foundering, and it's sad/pathetic that the Bay Area doesn't have a thriving local newspaper community.
I think local papers will need to go really local to survive. We need good journalism taking on city hall, transit, etc. We need a good op-ed columnist focusing on local issues.
National news is going to be provided by syndication agreements. Why does the Comical need a Wasington bureau?
Things I love about the Chron:
-Tim Goodman
-Jon Carroll
-David Lazarus
-Mick LaSalle
-Nina Chovin
(basically, all the columnists BUT M&R)
What I hate about the Chron:
-abridged reprints of NY Times/LA Times articles three days after I read the original
-jingoistic sports coverage
-crappy coverage of local issues that consists of reprinting the latest press release out of Gavin's office
Why I don't buy ads:
-Craigslist is easier to use
Why I don't subscribe:
-Insane delivery guy who started harassing me and ringing my buzzer at 5:30 am when I complained to the Chronicle that he wasn't delivering the paper some mornings
I sometimes will buy it in the afternoon for a quarter from the guy at the Muni station.
I grew up around a small-town newspaper. One of my granddads and two uncles worked there and I was a delivery boy for a couple of years. I once dreamed of a newspaper job but decided on a government career instead. But I’ve never been able to shake my love of hard-copy newspapers, as bad as some are, including the Chron. I’ve read them in Tokyo, Okinawa, Manila, Taiwan, Wake Island, the Bay Area, all major cities on the West Coast and all the way East to Annapolis, MD and a bunch of small towns in between. When I am in an airport or a hotel, I pick up a copy of every local paper on the newsstands. My favorites were always the Bay Area papers. Nothing was more enjoyable than a Sunday morning with a stack of Sunday papers waiting on the floor. Yes, I like the internet and its current news reports and comments. SFist, SFBG, and SFGate are my first sources for the latest updates. But I like to supplement them with detailed articles and longer news reports. I especially like a paper with top-flight op eds, whether I agree or not. The Chron lacks anything to like or dislike. Even so, if the Chron folds or reduces its hard-copy output to any substantial degree, that will be bad news for a lot of us.
Here’s an inevitable afterthought about the Chron: I once stayed at a hotel on the corner of Fifth and Mission near the old SF Mint when I was in the city on business. Every night for the week that I was there, a few people from the Chron would drop into the hotel’s bar for a drink or two before returning to work. I wonder if anything has changed.
An open memo to Phil Bronstein:
1. Become a local paper. The NY Times, and to a lesser extent the WSJ, are now the de facto national newspapers. There is no sense in duplicating/competing with their national and international coverage. Blue plastic bags cover the doorsteps in SF every morning, and the Web offers every story from these papers and many more, so don't even bother running their wire service national and international stories. Headlines and one para blurbs of the key national and international news belongs on the front page every day to draw readers in, but don't waste interior pages on it.
2. Become a local paper. Then cover the neighborhoods much better. Community bloggers is a good gesture in that direction, but you get what you pay for. Hire young, aggressive professional reporters to blanket SF. Maybe divide it by Supervisor district, maybe by fewer sections, but when you're getting scooped by the Noe Valley Voice you're just not serving the city. To be blunt, the Examiner is starting to become a regular read among a lot of my yuppie friends who have abandoned the Chronicle (except for a quick scan online every few days) in favor of the NYT.
3. Become a local paper. It's time to jettison some of the Chronicle's long-term writers, who are no longer relevant to the current city, with its age range and ethnic diversity. There is no one under the age of 45 in this city who takes Al's movie reviews seriously, or even really reads them. You have never had a cultural critic exploring the Mission-centric avant art scene in any coherent, comprehensive way. You have sequestered all your young writing and reporting talent on SF Gate rather than making them a regular part of the daily paper.
4. Be more like SFist in print!
I'm not paying for the Chron, hell no. If you want local coverage, go to SFist. And if you want the same political coverage that you'll find in the Chron, go to the drudge report.
Why don't I pay for the Chron? Well, I briefly subscribed in college, but canceled after I realized I had no time to read it every day. Unfortunately, our definitions of canceled differed - we agreed that it meant they didn't have to deliver anymore papers, we disagreed about the part where they wanted me to keep paying them.
But to echo the other comments, it's simply not local enough. It's just not where I expect to find the most interesting local stories.
I subscribe for Friday-Saturday-Sunday, and read on sfgate the rest of the week! Nothing beats the actual paper on a sunday... comics, ads, and all! I agree on covering local news more - I find out more about the city from the MONTHLY Marina Times/ Northside then in the Chron usually... take a look at the Marin IJ - they seem to be able to cover local news quite well!
Figure out a way to offer online advertising that doesn't drive your readers nutty, and make a committment to being a news orgainzation, not a profit center! Cutting people & relying on national news feeds will NOT increase your readership!
You guys (& gals) are too snarky. While blogs provide a place for people to give their opinions, newspapers (with professional reporters) are the only place that covers the government, business, nonprofits and other institutions. Do you think the crooks at City Hall would steal more or less if Matier & Ross didn't exist? No, the Chron isn't perfect. Far from it. It appears to me to be a very human endeavor, with some stories that are drastically off the mark. But tell me who else will serve as a watchdog of major institutions/forces in our lives as consistently as a local newspaper? Who else will stand up to those forces? And who will do it, day after day, year after year? Blogs come and go, based on how much time somebody has to write. Websites like SFist are probably one- or two- person operations. Is that any match for the powerful forces in our society? By tearing down the local paper (whether it's the Chron or some other paper) you're also eliminating an important check-and-balance. If the Chron disappeared, democracy would too. Not that I love the Chron, but this place would be terrible without it.
Why don't I.Something called Fully reporting the fact(half truths)When K Garcia was there.
Dropping all that SmokingBush on to my half baked noggin about pot cops.
And Newsom won't touch your wife with out dope.
Bang Bang Shoot.
I was going to explain that I was sorely disappointed with local news when I first moved here but the writer who penned the open letter to Phil Bronstein expressed it better than I can. And yes, the movie reviews are awful and out of touch. Overall, the Chron is a vanilla middling take on an awesome freaky-deaky city. Go zombies!