After closing 23 cents above its record-breaking IPO price of $38 on Friday, Facebook's stock dipped 11 to 13 percent to $33.87, at least as of early this morning. Patience will most likely prevail and the stock will grow over time. Naturally. But that didn't stop the heaps of schadenfreudian headlines and articles posted today. "Facebook stock plummets on second day of trading," screams San Jose Mercury News' headline. While Bloomberg made it sound like company CEO Mark Zuckerberg could be spare-changin' outside of Tu Lan, saying, "Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped $2.2 billion as shares of Facebook Inc. (FB), the world’s largest social-networking company, fell below the company’s $38 offer price in its second day of trading."
Media Descends On Facebook's Less-Than-Stellar Second Day Trading
Krug Champagne's Publicity Stunt At Burning Man Backfires
Krug Champagne summoned the wrath of many Burners (one year later!) after they staged a crass publicity stunt involving "society bloggers" at Burning Man 2011. As many of you know, Burning Man is a non-commercial event where all media must be approved via an understandably strict committee. The fancy champagne house, however, didn't bother to go though the proper channels. Which, rude. Even worse? Krug left behind a mess. The Burning Blog has all the details:
Aubrey Huff's Anxiety Disorder Prompts Local Media Mental Health Disclosures
It was announced yesterday that Aubrey Huff will be placed on the disabled list due to an anxiety disorder, which explains why the first baseman and outfielder suddenly left the Giants. "Obviously, we’re putting Huff on the DL. The reason is, he had an episode of anxiety," Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's gotten some treatment and he’ll continue to get treatment. He’s going to meet us in San Francisco when we get back, but we can’t keep going short." And with that, a couple of local media figures came out of the proverbial closet with their own mental health issues. For starters, SFGate scribe Henry Schulman made his own issues public on Wednesday:
SF Examiner Just Bought SF Bay Guardian? [Updated]
Whoa. According to Rachel Swan at East Bay Express, the SF Examiner just bought alternative weekly SF Bay Guardian. "The owners of the San Francisco Examiner just bought the San Francisco Bay Guardian, according to two sources," reports Swan." "Known as the oldest alt-weekly in the Bay Area, the Bay Guardian was founded in 1966 and has been a vociferous defender of progressive politics for several decades." And the Examiner was founded by the Hearst family before being recently purchased by Canadian investors.
Glossy Mag News: 7x7 Gets Its Spine Back, SF Mag Scores New EIC
Hey, you. Yes, you. Sitting there glazed-over and glassy-eyed from staring at your preferred choice of online viewing. Listen up: did you know that changes are afoot in the world of local print publishing? It's true. And this time the news involves neither embarrassing attempts to regain ad revenue nor pathetic blanket statements about the future of media from brain-dead journalists. It's good news. Shocking, but true. Here we go:
The Bay Citizen, Center For Investigative Reporting Will Join Forces
In Bay Area media news today, the Bay Citizen and Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting have announced what the inside media superfans have been whispering about for months now: That they totally intend to join forces to create the greatest nonprofit news organization the San Francisco Bay Area has ever seen. (Pending approval by both their board of directors, of course.)
Six Reporters Arrested During Occupy Oakland Mass Arrest
Mother Jones' Gavin Aronsen wrote a first-hand account of being apprehended at the Occupy Oakland mass arrest on Saturday, along with at least five other credentialed journalists and 400 protesters. Aronsen says this was in direct violation of Oakland Police Department's media relations policy, which states "media shall never be targeted for dispersal or enforcement action because of their status."
7x7 Magazine Moving to SOMA
After almost a decade in Union Square, local lifestyle magazine 7x7 will pack up their staplers and Post-Its and move to SOMA—glorious, rad, joyous, dirty, homelessy, wealthy South of Market. The publication(s) will move into the old Chronicle Books spot at 680 Second Street, right next door to Ironside (home of the city's best Cuban sandwich.) But why the move? SFist asked Chloé Harris, 7x7's sparkling new executive editor, for more details.
Canadian Newspaper Company to Purchase SF Examiner
SF Appeal breaks news that SF Examiner will be sold to a Canadian Newspaper company Black Press Group. According to a statement later released by the company, the sale expected to close on November 30, 2011.
Occupy Oakland Has Its Own Newspaper
Similar to Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland has its own paper now. It's called Occupy Oakland Tribune. The premier issue features such tidbits as today's general strike (which could the biggest East Bay demonstration since the Vietnam War, according to the other Tribune), ads about how we are all Oscar Grant and Scott Olsen, how you too can get involved, and more. You can either pick it up at some point during today's demonstration, or, better yet, look at it right here:
Matt Smith Heading to The Bay Citizen
In the wake of harsh layoffs at SF Weekly, the Bay Citizen has literally saved journalism. Or one journalist, at least: the charity case online newspaper has hired Matt Smith, whose name you might recognize from many a Weekly cover.
Berkeley Artist Contributes 'New Yorker' Cover With Evil Wall Street Theme
Berkeley-based artist Eric Drooker painted this lovely-but-ominous cover, which he submitted to The New Yorker about a year ago, but only this week did the magazine decide it was thematically appropriate for the time. Says Drooker on the New Yorker's blog, "Manhattan Island has become more and more an exclusive place for the super wealthy, or the super corporations—and a hostile place for people to live, not just for the working class, but even for the middle class. The city has become this monolithic cathedral to money.”
Steve Jobs Backlash Begins
And just like that, the death and surrounding melee of noted Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has sparked a minor backlash. As we mentioned earlier, several people took umbrage with the fact that a few spunky nerds held an iPhone vigil for Jobs in Dolores Park last night. Heated words for mourning Mac fans hit hard:
Chloe Harris Named New '7x7 Magazine' Executive Editor
The tony overlords at 7x7 Magazine named Stylebistro editor (and, above all else, former SFist style editor) Chloe Harris their new executive editor. In addition to having worked within the fashion media realm for years now, she's also a staunch advocate of marriage equality with her partner, food photographer Frankie Frankeny. (Check out JustMarried for more details.)
SF Weekly Cuts Noted Editorial Staff Members, Possibly More
In some heart-sinking news today, SF Weekly cut some of its staff -- possibly 1/3 of it, according to the grapevine. Most notably, the Village Voice Media paper pruned such stellar talent as web editor Jake Swearingen, reporter Matt Smith, calendar editor Hiya Swanhuyser, and SFoodie's W. Blake Gray.
Scene from 'Moneyball' Press Junket with Brad Pitt
Why, look! It's Brad Pitt. As we mentioned earlier today, Pitt and his special lady friend, Angelina Jolie, are in Oakland today to attend the premiere of the former's latest cinematic effort, Moneyball. Ben Platt was there to snap this shot of the actor posing with Billy Beane (left, the A's general manager Pitt portrays) and Eric Karros. Exciting, yes? Yes.
Graph Shows How Journalists See Each Other
Now for some insider-baseball humor. David Chon, founder of Spot.Us, devised this spot.on (haHA) graphic showing how journalists view each other. Having penned many an article in our boxer briefs, as well as experimenting chemically with other men, we must say that this is shockingly accurate. (A few testy and sensitive commenters of his, however, disagree. Oy.)
78 Food Writing Words That Are Out
The remarkable and remarkably talented Joyce Slaton of CHOW complied a list of the 78 most annoying words to read in a restaurant review. Among them? "Gastro pub," "sustainable," "toothsome," "meltingly tender," "slurp," "most unique," "redolent," "redolent," "died and gone to heaven," "local," "mouthfeel," and "yummo." Missing from the list? "Artisanal," "walnuts" and "pop-up," the latter of which we totally use in a headline today! But still. Stop using "pop-up," loony food writers. It's almost as bad as "hyperlocal," "blogosphere" or "the Mission."
'GQ' Declares S.F. 20th Worst-Dressed U.S. City
Billed as the key reason why romance novelist Danielle Steel skipped town, the city has no sense of high style. In fact, GQ just declared San Francisco the 20th Worst-Dressed U.S. city. Which...fine. We get it. We do. We're a bit lackadaisical when it comes to attire. Or are we? By and large, the city's key demographic goes to great lengths to dress with the right amount of affected insouciance or brightly-colored wan. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the Mission arrondissement where men look like bike-riding sheep (black pants, black shirt, hoodie, Giants cap) while the ladies tend to fashion themselves as third graders (rompers, Etsy jewelry, hairdos riddled with flyaways, cupcakes) so as to appear nonthreatening to men.
Celebrate Zoetrope's Summer Issue, July 19
Featuring new fiction from Stuart Dybek, as well as Emily Ruskovich and May-Lan Tan making their literary debuts, the summer issue of Zoetrope features a cover designed by Beck. Yes, that Beck. You should help Francis Ford Coppola celebrate the release of one of the city's best (and most underrated!) literary magazines at Cafe Zoetrope in North Beach on Tuesday, July 19 from 6 to 8 pm. There’ll be cocktails flowing, passed plates of light bites, and presumably groovy music.
AP to Open North Korean News Bureau
Wow. Um, OK: Associated Press announced today that, in an agreement with the eerie and truthiness-riddled Korea Central News Agency, they will open a news bureau in Pyongyang. Interesting. And... odd. Maybe AP wants to get attention for having arrested employees, too? And what's AP in North Korea actually going to put out? Government-written press releases, we reckon. This should prove, at best, a fascinating partnership. And with that, we now present Korean Central Television's jarring 1994 news report on Eternal President Kim Il-sung funeral. You're welcome.
Photo du Jour
"Jhon Thumb" by Bob Horowitz. (The Jhon Thumb Band appearing live at Kimo on Wednesday, June 15.)
NBC Bay Area Anchor Egos Aflutter Over John Kessler Gaffe
Former KPIX news anchor and Emmy Award-winner John Kessler felt the need to apologize on Facebook today after announcing his new gig at NBC Bay Area, which, ridiculously, managed to upset some of his future on-air colleagues. Kessler writes:
Fox Picks Up J.J. Abrams' 'Alcatraz'
UGO Entertainment reports that J.J. Abrams' San Francisco-set (obviously) time-traveling (also kind of obvious) crime drama Alcatraz has been picked up by Fox. You'll remember crews were around town filming the pilot episode back in February and they must have captured some particularly compelling footage because rumor has it Fox was ready to pass on the series.
More On Arianna's Plan To Launch San Francisco HuffPo
While news that AOL's Arianna Huffington plans to dip her toes in the crowded Bay Area media pool is nothing new, she went into further detail about a looing SF HuffPo. Huffington revealed the following tidbit to Nick Lucchesi of Westword at at a launch party last night in Dever:
Examiner Needs Course in Drag 101
Pardon us, San Francisco Examiner, but Donna Sachet is not "a drag queen dressed in a red ball gown." She is THE drag queen dressed in a red ball gown. Next you'll be telling us that you've spotted an unidentified Asian man hanging out in the mayor's office.
Meanwhile, at 7x7 Magazine: Premonitions of San Francisco's Future
What with the city's attention so clearly fixated on Ingleside and Silver Terrace, 7x7 Magazine wants you to be aware of these little-known San Francisco neighborhoods: the Mission, Hayes Valley, and Dogpatch. It seems, at least according to April's "Neightborhood Issue," they should be on your radar. Why? 7x7 explains with harrowing, soothsayer-like detail: "If restaurants, pop-ups, and micro-roasters are any indication of the city's future -- and rest assured, they are -- then these are the three neighborhoods you'll be flocking to next."
Tom Sinkovitz Leaves NBC Bay Area
Drats. One of the Bay Area's most esteemed and throaty-voiced anchors, Tom Sinkovitz, will be departing NBC 11. The former KRON anchor spent nearly three years at the Bay Area's NBC affiliate. "Sinkovitz' departure coincides with ex-sports anchor, Raj Mathai, ascent to the position of news anchor at NBC Bay Area, which no doubt played a part in Sinkovitz' decision." reports Rich Lieberman, local media blogger who scooped Sinkovitz's departure.
Tablehopper Launches Sister Site: Deep Dishing
Tablehopper founder and writer, Marcia Gagliardi, who singlehandedly changed the way people write about food in the Bay Area, announced today a new venture about Bay Area grub joints, watering holes, and more. Behold:
WSJ Ditches Honorifics In Sports, Cites Lincecum As Example
Honorifics are a woefully antiquated sign of ye olde MSM. Like grown men who still send written thank-you cards, it smacks of creepiness and, far worse, insincerity. Which is why the Wall Street Journal will no longer using honorifics in its Sports section.

