A toast to David Perlman: A journalist and colleague extraordinaire retires https://t.co/Rd6eMTZCxe via @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/UulmEzWBo9

— joegarofoli (@joegarofoli) August 3, 2017

77 years after joining the San Francisco Chronicle as a copy boy, science reporter David Perlman is retiring.

The Chron's John King penned a loving tribute to his colleague which you should read, mainly because anyone who works in journalism for 77 years makes for a good story themselves. But because you're in a rush to cut out of work early, here're the best parts:

• Born in Baltimore, Perlman grew up in Manhattan, went to Columbia's school of journalism, and came to San Francisco to work as a "copy boy" for the Chron in 1940.
• Right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Perlman was sent to the Chron's roof to look for incoming enemy aircraft. He left in the paper 1942 to join the Army and returned in 1951.
• He was married to his wife Anne for 61 years and they have three children. She died in 2002.
• A photo of a young Perlman petting a bird in 1955 reveals that the nearly 100-year-old writer was a stone cold fox.
• Laid-up from a 1957 ski accident, a friend gave Perlman a book called The Nature of the Universe. This book triggered Perlman's passion for science, which he parlayed into a job as a science writer.
• He's covered everything from the early AIDS epidemic to evolution and reported from such spots as the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica. (A commenter on King's tribute complained that Perlman didn't write about AIDS early enough. Make of that what you will.)
• Awards are named after him.
• Perlman covered any topic he was assigned, not just science. For example, he attended a press conference for a Grace Kelly film and admired the actress' low key gin consumption.
• He is at hug-level with DiFi.
• The LA Times did a piece on him four years ago, which marveled that Perlman was still at work. They also said that he's shrunk.
• On aging, Perlman was overhead to say, "Doctors want to put their hands all over me ... I guess it beats being embalmed."
• Perlman's last regular piece for the Chronicle is about the upcoming eclipse and will run this Sunday.

It's unclear who, if anyone, will be tasked with filling Perlman's (science) shoes. And if you want to read more about him, check out this profile from 2013 that ran in the LA Times.

Related: Veteran Fist-Shaking Chronicle Columnist CW Nevius Announces He's Leaving The Paper After 36 Years

Snopes.com, the 23-year-old fact-checking website devoted to keeping the internet honest, is in the midst of an ownership struggle that, according to one side of the dispute, is threatening the future of the site and its good work. In an open letter to readers Monday, the Snopes staff is pleading for donations saying that a relationship with a vendor connected to the hosting of the site has gone awry and the site has been unable to earn its own advertising income as a result. "We need our community now more than ever," they write, saying that they're turning to crowdfunding now in order to keep the site afloat while they continue the legal battle to regain control of the site.

The GoFundMe campaign has already raised of $80,000 of its $500,000 goal in just the last five hours — $15,000 of which appeared just while I've been writing this post.

TechCrunch reports that this kerfuffle dates back to the 2014 divorce proceedings of site cofounders David and Barbara Mikkelson, who entered into a revenue-share/content and ad management agreement with a company called Proper Media in August 2015. The couple founded the site way back in 1994, and in 2003 formed a company called Bardav Inc., in which they held equal shares. Then, per TechCrunch, things got messy following the divorce, and it's unclear what Barbara Mikkelson's connections to Proper Media are, if any.

In early 2016, Proper arranged to buy Barbara’s share of Bardav, replacing her as co-owner of the company. David Mikkelson attempted to kill the contract in spring of 2017 (wouldn’t you?), but Proper resisted, saying the terms of said contract were not fulfilled. In the meantime it is apparently holding onto the site’s revenue and parts of its infrastructure.

... At the same time, Proper alleges that Mikkelson misused company funds and inappropriately managed Bardav otherwise. The details are being cherry picked by both sides, as generally happens in dueling lawsuits (not to mention when a divorce is mixed in), so I don’t want to give too much credit to either side here.

From the sounds of it, David Mikkelson retains editorial control of the site, and he's the one now seeking crowdfunding to cover the site's expenses — and the site's value, on a cultural level, is perhaps greater than it ever was in our era of "fake news," though conservatives have long sought to discredit Snopes as having a liberal bias.

"As misinformation has increasingly threatened democracies around the world (including our own), Snopes.com has stood in the forefront of fighting for truth and dispelling misinformation online," the staff writes in today's open letter. "It is vital that these efforts continue, so we are asking the Snopes.com community to donate what they can."

The suggested donation amount is $10, but, they say, "if you can give more please consider doing so."

The Mikkelsons met on a pre-web Usenet board called alt.folklore.urban that was devoted to urban legends of the kind that Snopes would ultimately serve to debunk or confirm. As this Webby Awards history piece on the site explains, Barbara Mikkelson was the writer of many of the original articles on the site, which they named after a family of depraved recurring characters in William Faulkner novels.

You'll note that Barbara's involvement in the site is no longer included on the About page, and the staff page shows 15 employees and David Mikkelson as the sole founder and executive editor.

Update: The New York Times gets more of the Proper Media side of the story, and it sounds as though Barbara Mikkelson is no longer a part of the equation at all. They say that Snopes employees are still being paid out of the advertising revenue, however they want David Mikkelson removed as executive editor because of wasteful spending. Mikkelson tried to cancel a contract with Proper Media in May, something they claim he can not do without a vote by the two-person board of directors, which includes Mikkelson and Proper Media officer Drew Schoentrup.

Like all things, we knew at the get-go that it was destined to end...but still, we're a little surprised. After a six-month run, SF Chronicle columnist David Talbot has hung up his spurs, as he says the paper wouldn't pay him enough to continue.

After columnist CW Nevius left the Chronicle in December on 2016 (resurfacing some months later as a sports writer for the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat), the paper apparently found themselves suffering a shortage of white male columnists of a certain age. Enter Salon.com co-founder/48 Hills op-ed writer/former SF Examiner editor/Season of the Witch author David Talbot, whom Chron editor in chief Audrey Cooper welcomed as Nevius' replacement in late November.

At the time, Cooper said that Talbot's columns would appear three times a week for "several months," so even with his inaugural column detailing his colorful Bernal Heights neighbors, we already knew that this was a limited run.

A run that apparently ended on June 1, a look at Talbot's archives reveals, when he penned his final column, a regurgitation of responses to a previous column's self-described "Swiftian" suggestion that San Francisco just evict all its elderly residents "and nature will soon take its course."

And that was all he wrote, it appears.

According to John Diaz, the Chron's editorial page editor, he's "received a number" of inquiries regarding Talbot's silence since the June 1 piece. Diaz writes in his Sunday column that he preferred to "let David answer it himself" (echoes of "Nicole knows what she did," eh?).

(Relevant disclosures go here, I guess: I was a Deputy Managing Editor at the Chron until I quit to take another job in 2008, and am acquainted with Nevius, Cooper and Diaz. I don't know Talbot, and I don't have any inside intel on day-to-day operations at the paper or skin in this game)

Talbot's answer apparently lies in a Facebook post he published on July 2. According to Talbot, "I originally signed with the Chronicle for a 6-month gig, and in June my time was up. The newspaper offered to keep me on as a weekly columnist on a freelance basis, but I felt the offer was too low."

"I enjoyed my run at the Chronicle, and was frankly grateful that they gave a platform to a bomb-thrower like me," Talbot writes...and then can't resist throwing one last explosive:

This reader confusion about my departure would not have happened if the Chronicle hadn't spiked my farewell column. An editor there informed me that only columnists who had worked for decades at the paper were allowed to write farewell columns. Stupid policy. What are readers supposed to think when a columnist suddenly disappears without any explanation?

In the period since Talbot's final column and today, the Chron has yet to announce a replacement (short or long term) for Nevius' replacement. Here's hoping there's another old white guy with copious opinions available to take on the task!

Previously: Talbot Rides 9-San Bruno For Kicks, Finds Few Kicks

When he departed his post as a thrice-weekly columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle last fall, it wasn't clear if Nevius was planning for a semi-retirement, perhaps kicking back to write a memoir or some similar activity. But now the bane of SF progressives and homeless advocates has turned up with a new gig with fewer political duties, as a weekly sports columnist for the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

That may seem to be an odd move if you didn't know that Nevius was, in fact, a sports writer years back before he started doing movie reviews and then got his popular column in the Chron. He explains all that in his very first column for the Press-Democrat, noting with an old-timers' swagger, "I covered the Giants when there were ashtrays in the lockers. I was there when Barry Bonds was still surly and contentious, not smiling and charming like now. And when Mike Krukow was not only pitching, he was an imposing figure."

He also describes the great fun he had covering the Olympics over several decades, and getting flown around the world to do so, and the miserable slog that covering the Super Bowl became.

But, he says, after 20 years off the sports beat, he was able to return to being a fan again, and he's excited to write about the Giants and the Warriors and the Niners once again.

I groaned when Steph Curry missed a 3 and jumped off the couch when Buster Posey went deep.

It made me realize what an avid sports guy I am. Just ask me about Colin Kaepernick — but only if you’ve got a good 30 minutes.

So, when The Press Democrat asked me if I’d be interested in a once-a-week sports column, it made perfect sense.

So I’m back. I’m fired up.

And I’m sure you’ll let me know if I start to sound entitled or jaded.

You can now do just that via his new email, cw.nevius@pressdemocrat.com, or tweet at him via his still functioning Twitter account, where he's been offering armchair praise and critiques to some of the Chronicle's newer columnists like food guy Chris Ying.

Previously: Veteran Fist-Shaking Chronicle Columnist CW Nevius Announces He's Leaving The Paper After 36 Years

Since its founding as neighborhood blog "Haighteration" in the early 2010s, the news website that grew into the network known as Hoodline has become an invaluable resource for San Franciscans eager to stay on top of the news on their block. And now that locally-owned site has been acquired by a company called Ripple, a VC-backed "city-focused news platform powered by local journalists and storytellers."

Ripple, which launched in May of this year, had been syndicating Hoodline's content since its inception, Recode reported at the time. Though its launch was marred by an apparent technical glitch that caused Ripple to fully republish content from a multitude of non-consenting news organizations including DNAinfo and websites owned by SFist's parent company, Gothamist, Ripple founder, Egyptian-born Armenian tech entrepreneur Razmig Hovaghimian apologized, saying in an open letter "I really messed up, and I am truly sorry."

Since then, it's been apparent smooth sailing — and now, TechCrunch reports, Ripple has moved from just syndicating Hoodline's content to owning the publication outright.

"Hoodline will also continue to operate as a separate website," TechCrunch reports, and "the 'bulk' of Hoodline’s editorial team will be making the transition to Ripple."

“Content will come in many ways, through APIs, partners, original editorial,” Hovaghimian told TechCrunch. (SFist's effort to reach Hoodline founder Andrew Dudley, who will remain with the company as an advisor, were unsuccessful at publication time.)

According to Recode, Ripple's investors include e-commerce giant Rakuten, Greylock Partners, Graph Ventures, Social Capital, Charles River Ventures, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito, Vice Media CEO Shane Smith and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to the tune of $4 million. The financial terms of the Hoodline acquisition were not disclosed.

Fans of the San Francisco Bay Guardian remain frustrated and sore over the abrupt 2014 shutdown of the once venerable progressive paper. But, as staffers at the time promised it would, the SFBG is returning in some form, and that form is digital via the officially revived sfbg.com. While it won't be a daily news site, former Guardian editor Tim Redmond has already posted the SFBG's official endorsements for the June election of the Democratic County Central Committee, and you can bet the site will kick into action again before November.

As promised during their fundraising drive last fall, the SFBG will, henceforth, provide election endorsements as it always did, and will be printing up some special issues like the Best of the Bay, and the GOLDIES arts awards. Says publisher Marke Bieschke, who's now working with Redmond on the daily updated site 48 Hills, "Let's keep media independent, print the news, and raise some hell!"

Also, the effort is ongoing to digitize the paper's 48 years worth of archives — a project that is no doubt very inky and complicated, and for which the crew is still hoping to raise more funds.

Next up, look for the 41st Best of the Bay, which is in the works.

Related: Former SF Bay Guardian Publisher Marke Bieschke Talks Fundraising, Progressive Media, And Bringing Back The 'Best Of The Bay'

Two weeks after a longstanding San Francisco Chronicle columnist retired to great fanfare, an interview reveals that the beloved writer might have been forced into dropping the pen.

As previously noted, SF Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll filed his last column for the paper on November 19, 33 years after he joined the publication. As befits a departing legend, the newspaper published a multitude of tributes and threw the 72-year-old a newsroom shindig. But in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review from Wednesday, Carroll suggested that he was pushed out of the city's paper of record.

When asked "Why did you decide to retire?" Carroll responded "It’s a complicated question. Let me put it this way, it was not entirely voluntary, but I was offered a choice and I took it."

It's possible that Carroll's absence from a newsroom desk played a part in his departure, as he says that "I’m very much in favor of writing at home. That was one of the issues with the Chronicle and me. For 25 years I’d write at home, and the idea that it would be useful for me to write somewhere else is nonsense."

"When I was at a newsroom, being out of the office was considered to be a good thing, absorbing whatever it is you were supposed to be absorbing."

"Let’s put it this way," Carroll said, "All of the features of corporate bureaucracy have come to dominate the newspaper business, which used to work on a slightly more informal basis. It wasn’t like a factory."

But if you feel bad for Carroll after his possible shove out the 901 Mission door, don't.

"I have to say," Carroll says, "that now that it’s happened, I couldn’t be happier."

Previously: 'Dear Abby' Easter Egg For Retiring Chron Columnist

Jon Carroll & Dear Abby team up to leave @sfchronicle readers a nice little Easter egg on Carroll’s last day. pic.twitter.com/cj70iPsPBL

— Rich Saskal (@RichSaskal) November 20, 2015

After a long and storied career, SF Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll is retiring, spurring numerous tributes, a call for new voices...and, if I'm not mistaken, a problem for Dear Abby.

As Carroll notes in his final column, he took his first job at the Chron in 1962, before heading off to Rolling Stone. He returned in 1982, and wrote a regular column for the paper for the last 33 years (he's run down his absolute favorite columns here, and his full archive is here), typically a gentle rumination on the issues of the day with frequent mentions of his cats (none of which I ever actually met, DAMMIT).

Fellow columnist Leah Garchik wrote a lovely tribute to her departing colleague, and the Chron is trolling for his replacement (could it be you?). But after you read all that stuff, check out the quirkiest nod to his departure, a missive in the even-longer-standing syndicated advice column Dear Abby.

While the Dear Abby that ran everywhere else contained the usual set of queries (late in life baby adoption troubles, my friends don't like my boyfriend), the Chron version from today contained a special lead letter:

Dear Abby: I have been a San Francisco Chronicle columnist for 33 years, and my picture is at the top of the column. Because that enables readers to recognize me, I have had to leave lavish tips in the jars on the counters of cafes and coffee shops. Now that I am retiring, do I still have to be generous? Wondering in Oakland

Dear Wondering in Oakland: Only if you plan to continue eating in those establishments. Your celebrity status carries with it extra responsibilities. So live with it — and enjoy it!

In the world of online media, saturated though it may feel, we should all be grateful for any new publications that open their doors in an age when so many have closed, or are floundering. So, it's with some fanfare that Reddit is launching Upvoted, their first "legit" content site that will not be a community forum, but a venue for original content of the viral variety that one might find linked and endlessly commented upon on Reddit. It's a venture a la BuzzFeed, Upworthy, and all the rest, but with seemingly fewer listicles, and more stand-alone pieces of writing of the funny, "interesting," animal, or sincerely emotional variety — e.g. their first front-page item "How Three Survivors of Suicide Spent Their Last Days On Earth."

As they explain in an introductory post, Upvoted grew out of a podcast that was launched in January and got 1.6 million downloads, and a subsequent newsletter with 212,000 subscribers. "This launch of upvoted.com is the next logical step in celebrating the Reddit community: a hub for original content to give Redditors credit, as well as go beyond the original story to learn more about the people and ideas that bubble up across this site of 202 million monthly users (bigger than Brazil!)."

The big difference being you can't "upvote" things on Upvoted, or comment on them — the trolls are relegated to returning to actual Reddit for that, at r/upvoted. You can, however, share the stories on Facebook or Twitter like you would on a normal news or content site.

Content, including news-y stories, will be created by a team of around ten writers and editors, and led by former Myspace editorial director Vickie Chang. The idea is that the team will find stories on Reddit, fact-check them, possibly interview the original posters, and write original pieces for Upvoted that have a thread back to Reddit itself.

And this marks Reddit's tacit acknowledgement that in order to grow their business, and attract advertisers, they needed a less chaotic platform. "The borderlands of the web is dangerous territory in which to post an ad or have your brand be associated," as Wired points out. "Reddit has a reputation as the dark, unruly id of the Internet — and that reputation is hurting its business."

It's not wild speculation to foresee that Upvoted could grow to compete with BuzzFeed and use its traffic and clout from its original viral content to become an actual news organization, the way BuzzFeed did. But we'll see.

It could very well require a descent into list land for that.

Previously: Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao 'Rooting For The Humans Over The Trolls' In Washington Post Opinion Piece

Stanley Roberts, KRON 4's host of "People Behaving Badly," is in many ways the self-appointed conscience of San Francisco. So, brace yourselves because god knows what kind of crappy behavior people will get up to during this break he's taking: The reporter/personality has announced on Facebook and Twitter that he's had a stroke and will be spending the next few days recuperating.

The tone of this tweet is classic Stanley Roberts, of course. As those following him know, Roberts normally reserves his feed for negative comments about himself, which he laughs off with typical good humor.

Get well soon, Stanley! We hope your stroke is only a minor one. We'll be on our best behavior until you get back.

Related: Stanley Roberts Visits Outside Lands Just To Shame Uber Drivers Stopping In Bus Zones

News arrives today that well-liked San Francisco online publication The Bold Italic is returning from the dead thanks to a just-announced deal by two local tech professionals to purchase the site's assets. Though details haven't been publicized, it seems likely that the undisclosed purchase fell well below the $5 million price tag earlier quoted by former SF Bay Guardian publisher Mark Bieschke.

The Bold Italic, popular for its essays, news, and visual stories about San Francisco, abruptly announced it would cease operations in April. Since then, it's received an outpouring of fond remembrances, the kindest and wisest from former Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Maerz. Though the situation surrounding The Bold Italic's closure remains murky, the realities were simple. The site was owned by Virginia-based Gannett Co., Inc, which founded the site along with Bay Area think-tank IDEO. Somewhere along the line, Gannett, who own media outlets such as USA Today, decided to pull the plug on The Bold Italic, leaving Maerz, her team, and Bold Italic fans bereft of the publication they so clearly adored.

One among the many thousands who learned the sad news through Facebook was Sunil Rajaraman, a longtime writer, member of the tech community, and most recently the founder of a startup called Scripted. Rajaraman confirmed to SFist that he has purchased The Bold Italic from Gannett for an undisclosed sum. His co-owner is Sonia Arrison, who is a Board Member of the Thiel Foundation, a founder of the Singularity University in Mountain View, and a technology thinker and writer.

News of the re-boot landed this morning in another Facebook post that offered a flurry of excitement and a paucity of details for Bold Italic loyalists.

The lack of information comes, in part, because Rajamaran says the details aren't altogether worked out. "We're figuring it out as we go," he told SFist from his home in San Mateo where he has just welcomed his second child. "Quite frankly this all happened so fast." The new owner's motivations were simple. "It's frustrating to see all of these San Francisco publications shut down and I didn't want to let it happen again. Not on my watch." It sounds like getting the rights to the publication was simple, too. "It's actually funny, I was able to comment on a friend's Facebook post, and then I was able to get in touch with somebody from Gannett, and we were able to purchase the assets of the site."

Though The Bold Italic's store of previous content, slated to disappear in the near future, will now remain online, that will be the only carry-over from the publication's previous incarnation. So far no members of The Bold Italic's previous staff have signed on to work with Rajaraman and Arrison. To that effect, Rajaraman wants to "make it clear that the staff was gone before we had any of the discussions."

Most recently the author of a Medium post titled "How Much Money Do You Need to Raise For Your Startup?," Rajaraman clearly has an eye for funding that will serve the new Bold Italic well. Under his watch, TechCrunch reports that Scripted raised $4.5 million to create a marketplace for freelance, mostly copy and technical writing. Of his new property, he says, "I think there's a sustainable business model."

In co-owner Arrison, Rajamaran has a technology player and analyst who is clearly in it for the long run. That's a pun, since her most recent book is 2012's 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith, a text that "addresses the social, economic, and cultural impacts of radical human longevity." It was named a best book of the year by the Financial Times and is credited as a national best-seller.

Former Bold Italic staff received news of the sale in the following email, the text of which was obtained by SFist.

You've either seen the Facebook post or heard it through the the grapevine: Gannett sold The Bold Italic to Unsugarcoat Media which is the new entity formed by Sunil Rajaraman, the former CEO of Scripted. The deal closed today after the last 6 or so weeks of due diligence and negotiations. I'm not sure what Sunil's plans are but know he was very complimentary about the brand all of you worked so hard to build.

Previously: The Bold Italic Ceases Operations

In a deal that is expected to be announced Wednesday and has been anticipated for some time, the New York Times will publish select articles directly to Facebook, a place where news is increasingly circulated and consumed. Some might even call this a watershed moment for old-school print journalism.

According to sources close to the deal, New York Magazine reports, the talks have been going on for weeks now, with the CEO of the Times, Mark Thompson, reportedly pressing for a better deal for the paper, and one that won't hurt their established digital subscriber base. The move is likely to be seen as an admission of defeat by Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. as the company has pushed to build their own app platform for stories. Buzzfeed, NBC News, and NatGeo are also said to be involved with the deal.

Reportedly, the newsroom at the Times has been a site of "palpable anxiety" as the deal was underway. In particular, the confidentiality of the project has concerned many, and naturally, questions abound. For instance: Could the Times, for example, report on Facebook, a company whose actions should be carefully tracked by the media, with full objectivity?

"For publishers, Facebook is a bit like that big dog galloping toward you in the park," the late David Carr wrote ominously for the Times last October. "More often than not, it’s hard to tell whether he wants to play with you or eat you."

We'll soon see, since that dog is now decidedly off-leash.

In the latest significant announcement reflecting rapid shifts in the San Francisco media landscape, The Bold Italic announced today that it would cease its operations effective immediately. The web — and briefly, print — publication was introduced in October 2009, the child of the Bay Area's IDEO and Virginia-based Gannett Co., Inc, which owns media outlets such as USA Today. The sudden news, which came in the form of a post to the site, is a loss to Bay Area readers, though the site's archive will stay active for a few coming months.

Since our launch, The Bold Italic has strived to faithfully serve San Franciscans near and far, whether born and bred here or having just arrived in the city. We have a great passion for the Bay Area and all that it has to offer — and have had a lot of fun sharing our enthusiasm with you. Together we have built a strong community of followers, contributors, and partners. However, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations. It’s been a great run and we supremely thank everyone who has supported us along the way.

This is the third notable loss of the last six months in SF media. Last October, The San Francisco Bay Guardian ceased publication after 48 years. And in February of this year, 7x7 announced that it was shutting down its print edition and would become all-digital. Within the past few weeks there's also been word of rapidly contracting staff at SF Weekly.

Bold Italic Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Maerz confirmed the closure via email, writing that “Today we made the very difficult decision to cease operations at The Bold Italic…. We’re proud of the stories we’ve told about this amazing place where we live and work. While we will stop publishing new stories today, the site will stay live for several months to allow time for [writers] to capture and archive content for portfolios or clips."

I, for one, will be in that position. As a former freelancer and intern for The Bold Italic, I can speak to a thoughtful and encouraging team that cultivated strong work from writers and designers. Visual stories, from illustrated personal essays to photo-driven histories to the occasional polemic, were tenants of the site. So, too, were mainstream hits like the "Kid Food Review" series in which children were photographed enjoying or not enjoying expensive meals at local restaurants.

The Bold Italic was a highly experimental enterprise. It regularly produced events, partnering with local businesses and appealing to recent transplants. It ran an online shop, shuttered of late, that sold posters based on stories alongside other San Francisco ephemera. In past months it expanded operations to include stories about Los Angeles and, before that, began running news-focused, shorter blog posts which were sometimes out of keeping with its longer form work.

It was also, by many accounts, an expensive testing ground— albeit one that paid fairly and strove to treat its employees well. Its sunny Hayes Valley office was the subject of one post from 2012, and it was a lovely but elaborate space that, in the past year, was at times partially rented to a start-up.

Marke Bieschke, formerly the publisher of the Bay Guardian, writes in a post to 48 Hills that he received an email last year indicating some of the struggles of The Bold Italic. This came shortly after news that Gannet was spinning off its print business, essentially splitting its digital and print publications. "Originating from the head of the sales department, it informed me that Gannett was offering Bold Italic for sale, to the tune of 5+ million [dollars]. Also at the same time, Bold Italic expanded its coverage to LA. The mixed messages were confusing to say the least."

Though individual staffers are directing questions to a Gannett executive, Jeremy Lybarger, the publication's managing editor, captured the mood in the office with this tweet. Eater reports that Maerz, Lybarger, and others have been laid off.