Denny's Free Grand Slam Breakfast Day Tuesday
Marina Yoga Studio Donates Old Mats for Haitian Relief
Prop 8 Trial Judge Is Gay; Should This Matter?
Muni Bus Nails a Fire Hydrant
One Dead in Fisherman's Wharf Nightclub Shooting
It's rumored that 20 newsroom-based Media Workers Guild employees at the San Francisco Chronicle will be involuntarily laid off today. We're told that a union steward sent a message to its members recommending that, if they are indeed called to HR, to bring a guild representative with them to help protect their interests. Yikes.
Reports are trickling in with the names of who has been tapped thus far. The list so far, which we've confirmed with our sources, we will add to or correct if and when we receive additional information:
- John Koopman -- best known for his "The Badge" series on the SFPD
- Jonathan Curiel -- presently responsible for Chronicle Watch. Does this mark the end of Phil Bronstein's subscriber-beloved pet project?
- Susan Sward -- an investigative reporter, remember that the Chronicle laid her off the next time someone whines about how only newspapers do "deep investigative reporting." Not if they fire the only people who do that, they don't.
- Mark Hedin -- copy editor, nice man, and reporter who covered many different topics while at the paper.
- Tyche Hendricks -- Tyche has always written intelligently and compassionately about issues affecting immigrants, among other topics.
- Deborah Gage, -- hired by the business section a little more than year ago to write about computers and technology. This leaves the Technology section fairly well decimated.
- Derrick Smith -- copy editor. Remember that the next time you want to get all shitty about copy editing on SFist. The papers don't have 'em either!
- Delfin Vigil -- he of the infamous Examiner ad.
- Zahid Sardar -- tried to write about design.
- Jim Doyle -- staff reporter. He did this cool slideshow. Way to hang on to folks who are open to doing web stuff, Chron.
- Lesley Guth -- Hey! Management! Lesley was a metro editor, responsible for, among other things, Chronicle Watch. Guess that answers that question.
- Karen Hata -- Was at SFGate for many years, transitioned to the Chronicle's business section about a year ago.
- Tim Sullivan -- Editorial assistant (and loyal SFist fan!) who requested a voluntary buyout today, and received it. Not quite a layoff, but our understanding is that his departure saved someone else from the ax. That it's this arbitrary does make us wonder how strategic these layoffs are.
- Christopher Heredia -- Oakland City Hall beat
- Jane Kay -- Chronicle Environment writer
Alas, more to come. Will update above list throughout the day.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I somehow got into a Chronicle online survey. It asked about what I enjoyed reading ... and how I read it (paper, online, one more than the other, neither). I really just want the San Francisco/Bay Area/State Capitol news and investigative reporting to try to keep an eye on the folks working for us at City Hall and in Sacramento. The Examiner, love it or hate it, is just shredding the Chronicle on local news and timeliness of their news. SFGate.com is starting to look more and more stagnant.
Sad. Really sad.
Not good.
Debbie Saunders? pretty please?
I often wonder if she's dodged the bullet because the Chron makes money from her in syndication, or because she's the shop steward and they don't want to deal with accusations of union-busting.
Nevius must have some serious dirt on somebody.
no shit, right?
Thanks for following this, Brock. It's important to a lot of us. Joe
Sad times. Will miss reading Zahid's pieces, and total bummer on Deborah Gage too.
really sucks for Deborah Gage. Hired a year ago? foresight fail.
Truly sad is the way Jonathan Curiel has been pushed down in the ranks until he was sitting on the lowly Chron Watch desk. It seemed the Chronicle was trying to force him out after years of top notch journalism.
Yes, I got that survey. it was wild. At one point, it included photos of all the columnists and had very explicit questions regarding each (which do you read, is so and so special, etc.). It was very personal and, as I filled it out, I felt as though i was weighing in on each columnist (happily so in a couple of instances, I'll admit).
so classy, brock. it's almost as if you really care.
almost.
chicken john, as you know, is the only one who really cares in sf.
Speaking of lack of copy editing ... Mark Hedin was a features copy editor, not a reporter.
zing