"The Future of Newspapers" by Justin Beck. more ›

Much to our surprise, the University of California at Berkeley still has an operable printing press. But? Not for long. According to CBS 5, "Within weeks, UC Berkeley will shut down its 136-year-old printing service, which has become a victim of the Internet and other technologies that have eaten away at its business." Printing work now be outsourced. Also, around 40 employees will "lose their jobs at the printing plant at the junction of Emeryville, Oakland and Berkeley." more ›

Mommy and daddy, we wish you'd stop fighting. Is it because we're bad? Do you hate us? We promise to be good if you stop hating each other. Because when we read this: more ›

Despite being ordered by a court to hand over half of its revenue to SF Bay Guardian for illegally selling ads below cost, SF Weekly is not -- not! -- going out of business. OK?! more ›

For those of you who still read print editions of newspapers, did you happen to see 's latest makeover? To be blunt, it looks downright lovely. The font, the sharper images, the cozier size -- all of it works. Much better than the previous format, we think. You know, if print issues are your thing. more ›

San Francisco's favorite writer Dave Eggers was honored the other night in New York City for his charity work at 826 Valencia -- the organization that tutors kids in writing skills and now has chapters in six other cities besides SF. He gave a speech, reported in The New Yorker, in which he declared that print was not dead, and that anytime anyone thought it might be, or felt down about the state of publishing in general, they could email him at deggers@826national.org and he would cheer them up, or something. Most of the crowd cheered. As the New Yorker cheekily puts it: "For a night, at least, print lived." more ›

Where The Onion used to be on Cortland in Bernal Heights. The Onion, as SFist pointed out last week, ceased print editions in San Francisco and Los Angeles. more ›

As everyone is well aware, print news is dying a slow death, and news organizations everywhere -- like our very own Faded Floozy -- are changing hands or closing up shop completely. Fortune reports that while the NYT may be doing better than many other papers in terms of subscribers (over 800,000), the growth of their web presence, and national ad revenue, they've still had a shit year and several folks with a few extra billion dollars lying around have danced around the possibility of buying The Times Co., which is currently controlled by the Sulzberger family. Billionaire gay media mogul David Geffen was allegedly negotiating the purchase of a 19% stake in the paper in the last several months, but those negotiations fell through. Google also considered the purchased, but decided against it for now. more ›

It's a sad day, area men and women: Today's editions of the The Onion in San Francisco and Los Angeles will be the last. The paper was said to be laying off editors yesterday in those two cities, and the New York print edition is apparently doing only marginally better. Despite sharing their primary editorial content across every regional edition, the organization has been hit by the same forces killing off alternative weeklies and mainstream papers around the country -- craigslist classifieds, Yelp reviews, the general desire to retrieve information quickly via the web without killing tress -- and yeah, print is dead. The web arm of The Onion is sure to survive, and for now, so will regional print editions in Denver, NYC and throughout the Midwest. more ›

Maureen Dowd is kind of an idiot. And we mean that in the nicest way possible, because she seems so smart. But then she goes off and writes this. In her most recent op-ed piece for the New York Times, she attempts to show the world of online writing what's what. How so? Well, she attacks Twitter and other types of newfangled online internet world wide web sites, claims that journalists are "hot" in Hollywood right now ("Russell Crowe, playing a messy and morally ambiguous Washington investigative journalist, teaches the self-regarding blogger, Rachel McAdams, a thing or three, including why a pen is necessary" is just one example of print publishing's tenacity), and compares cumbersome newspapers to the ageless Norma Desmond. more ›

Let's face it: The Daily Show blows now, and not in a good way. Comedy Central's fake news has turned into The Capitol Steps for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. It's the kind of programming progressives and over-educated ilk claim to find hilarious. That is to say, it's the kind of programming they all agreed en masse to find hilarious. And if you watch the show every night, you know that that's not a reactionary statement. more ›

What with the Seattle P-I shutting down its print operations, and SF Chronicle clinging to life, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Attorney General Eric Holder to make changes in antitrust restrictions so that papers can work jointly to save money. Oy. According to Sacramento Business Journal, "Pelosi asked the [Department of Justice] to consider 'not only the number of daily and weekly newspapers in the Bay Area, but also the other sources of news' that compete with them. In effect, Pelosi is asking for a broader view of competing news sources that might allow struggling newspapers to cut deals to stay alive." SF Chronicle and the Examiner, as well as Seattle Times and the Seattle P-I, have worked together in the past until "losses from one paper threatened to hurt the other," resulting in lawsuits and court battles. more ›

Inexplicably managing not to spray the room with gunfire or hurl himself out of the nearest open window, TMZ's Harvey Levin spoke to students enrolled at the "elite" Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. TMZ, for the few of you not in the know, is a fantastic celebrity news site where you can find images of a beaten Rhianna or a postmortem Anna Nicole Smith; and Levin, a former lawyer and television producer, runs the joint. A few revelations Levin unveiled at Wednesday's talk? He doesn't hire writers, prefers to employs reporters who look like this; was asked by a J-schooler if he would be doing "more serious stories" at TMZ (answer: no); and declared "local news is dying, newspapers are dying." more ›

Less vacation time and longer work weeks for the same pay might be in store for SF Chronicle employees after the paper and the California Media Workers Guild reached a tentative deal yesterday. But wait, there's more! In an effort to keep Chron and SFGate running after this month's somewhat shocking news, "employees who are laid off or accept buyouts will receive two weeks of pay per year of service totaling a maximum of one year's salary and health benefits for the length of the severance package," according to reports. While this entire deal could very well have Terry Schiavo written all over it, today must be a relief to the 150-plus employees who were "bracing for about 150 job cuts." Congratulations, guys. more ›

Sigh. The Sacramento Bee tells AP that they plan on "cutting 128 jobs, or 11 percent of its workforce, as revenue continues to fall in the beleaguered newspaper industry." The death toll by the numbers: 29 jobs in the newsroom, 8 in advertising, 62 in circulation, and 23 in production. Remaining employees face wage cuts and forced vacations too. The Sacramento Bee is owned by Sacramento-based McClatchy Co. more ›