Steve Falk, publisher of The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa has been named the California News Publishers Association’s newspaper executive of the year. Other honorees are the late San Francisco Chronicle science editor David Perlman and retired Sacramento Bee publisher Cheryl Dell. The press release is here. The Press Democrat’s story on Falk is here.
The California News Publishers Association has posted a webinar focused on strategies to adapt and evolve amid the myriad changes facing the industry. CNPA
Michael Krasny, host of KQED radio’s Forum program, says he will retire in February at the age of 76. Krasny, a retired professor and an author, joined the station as host of the talk show in 1993. During his tenure he interviewed many leading figures in politics, culture and the arts. KQED | SF Chronicle | SF Examiner
The San Francisco Giants are digitizing their old “media assets” — video tape, film reels and audio cassettes — some of which would be available to the public through streaming and to TV outlets. An example: A video in which Willie Mays gives hitting tips.
The San Francisco Bay View, a Black-focused news outlet since 1976, has been accepted as a provisional member of the California News Publishers Association. A final acceptance is pending CNPA board approval. Meanwhile, the online and print publication will receive full membership benefits.
Is it time for news organizations to better serve their readership by rethinking the approach to obituaries — especially the cost? The Reynolds Journalism Institute makes the case, citing the approach by Berkeleyside, the online news site in Berkeley.
Employees of the San Francisco Chronicle have been offered voluntary buyouts as a way to cut expenses amid the coronavirus pandemic. Management said there are no plans for layoffs and no target for the number of buyouts.
KTVU-TV news anchor Frank Somerville prompted a video call between Warriors basketball star Klay Thompson and a fan whose dying wish was to meet her favorite player. Radio.com | USA Today
The Santa Cruz weekly Good Times has purchased the Press Banner, based in Scotts Valley and also serving Boulder Creek and the San Lorenzo Valley.
A Central Valley couple, Hank and Kelly Vander Veen, has purchased Morris Newspapers of California, which includes The Manteca/Ripon Bulletin, Turlock Journal, Oakdale Leader, Ceres Courier, Escalon Times, Riverbank News and 209 Magazine.
Lauren Gustis, editor of the Sacramento Bee, hosts a webinar on disinformation in elections, how to spot it and how to fact-check it.
Larena Baldazo, the public information officer for Laney College in Oakland describes her work life amid the COVID pandemic.
Five college students showing promise in videography, film and the television arts have been awarded scholarships by the SF/Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The awards total $15,000.
Jim Ewert, the general counsel and chief legislative advocate for the California News Publishers Association, will retire on Dec. 31 after 25 years with the organization. Among other achievments, CNPA said “Ewert earned a James Madison Award in 2019 from the SPJ NorCal Chapter’s Freedom of Information Committee for his role in the passage of legislation that gives the public access to certain peace officer personnel records that were previously unavailable. CNPA
Ten Northern California television professionals have been entered into the Gold and Silver Circle honor society, which acknowledges 50 and 25 years of service, respectively. Among them are reporters, photographers, anchors, producers and technical pros. emmysf.tv
The San Francisco Chronicle has announced that Washington Post managing editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz will become the Chronicle’s editor-in-chief. He starts on Sept. 21. SF Chronicle | MediaPost | The Hill
KQED has announced layoffs of 20 staff members, including five journalists, in an effort to offset a projected $7.1 million deficit. The moves reflects an anticipated decline in corporate sponsorships and individual memberships amid the coronavirus pandemic. KQED | SF Chronicle
Well-known news analyst Ken Doctor has announced that he’s starting a local news outlet in Santa Cruz. Lookout Santa Cruz will be in competition with the Santa Cruz Sentinal, a paper owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Doctor has been a critic of hedge fund newspaper ownership, which he says undermines local news coverage. New York Times | Poynter Institute | Lookout
Chatham Asset Management, the hedge fund that’s soon to own the McClatchy Co., has announced that Tony W. Hunter will become the CEO and that Chatham will retain the McClatchy name. Hunter was formerly publisher of the Chicago Tribune and later chairman of a cannabis company based in Illinois. McClatchy DC | PR Newswire
The Oakland A’s are back on Bay Area radio, just five months after abandoning the broadcasts in favor of streaming media. The team is now heard on KNEW, 960-AM. It said the restoration of broadcast audio was in response to fan feedback. San Jose Mercury News | Athletics Nation
Former San Francisco Chronicle editor-in-chief Audrey Cooper arrives in New York City against pushback from her soon-to-be staff at WYNC, the city’s public radio station. Prior to her selection, staff members implored management to hire “a person of color, someone who knows New York, and someone who has experience in public radio.” Journal-isms (2nd item) | New York Times
KCBS reporter Mike Colgan retires after 33 years covering news for the station. In the Silicon Valley bureau he covered tech developments and the impact on the Bay Area’s culture and economy. KCBS (audio)
Oakland A’s baseball broadcasts for the first time will no longer be available over the airwaves in the Bay Area, instead they will be streamed online via the TuneIn service. Mercury News | SF Chronicle | MLB
The digital news outlet Berkeleyside announces that it’s hiring nine journalists and four people in the business operation as part of a major expansion. Berkeleyside
The McClatchy Co., publisher of 30 newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald and Kansas City Star, has filed for bankruptcy protection amid pension burdens and financial challenges. USA Today | NPR | McClatchy
The Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has honored a host of publications, writers, nonprofits and attorneys for their work in support of freedom of information and the First Amendment. An awards dinner is planned for March 19. Norcal SPJ
Friends of the Petaluma-born film critic Pauline Kael remember her and her work as the new documentary, “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael” opens in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Rafael. SF Chronicle
KPFA, the Berkeley-based, listener-supported FM station, owes nearly a half million dollars in back taxes on its building, which will be sold at auction March 20 unless a settlement is achieved. Berkeleyside | Indybay
The online news site Berkeleyside is seeking a managing editor to lead its new operation in Oakland. The independent news organization announced in December that it had received a $3 million grant to expand its coverage. Berkeleyside | KTVU-2
After nearly 30 years as staff attorney, general counsel and, finally, executive director of the California News Publishers Association, Tom Newton has announced his retirement. CNPA
Pat Kerrigan, a mainstay of Santa Rosa’s KSRO radio morning news team, returns to the airwaves and accounts for her recent absence. The reason: a battle with “the monster that is alcoholism.” In a frank five-plus minute audio clip, she expresses hope that her latest treatment will stick. KSRO
Local news outlets that deliver content solely online aren’t getting the respect they deserve, as the San Jose Spotlight has learned in a dispute with the city’s mayor. On Jan. 28, 2020, however, online-only sites gained a measure of respect when the California News Publishers Association voted to grant digital members parity with legacy news organizations. Columbia Journalism Review
High school students from Tracy teach students and parents how to navigate the potential dangers of social media and dating apps as part of the San Joaquin County Human Trafficking Task Force’s Student Social Media Team. Tracy Press
A new state law intended to improve conditions for “gig workers” at companies like Uber and Lyft is looking like bad news for a Northern California weekly newspaper. The Willits Weekly, which relies on freelance workers, is in danger of closing because of AB5, it says. Willits Weekly
Vic Lee, a Bay Area TV journalist for nearly a half century, has retired. Starting as a newspaper intern in 1969, Lee went to work three years later for KRON-4, then reported for the last 15 years at KGO-7. Mercury News | KQED Forum
California’s oldest newspaper has been saved from oblivion by a 71-year-old Downieville resident who canceled a world tour to take over the paper. SFGate.com | LA Times | Sierra County Prospect
Kat Rowlands, founder of the Bay City News Foundation, is calling for donations to fund a news operation replacing the defunct Martinez News- Gazette, which published its last edition on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. Contributions of up to $1,000 will be matched. Bay City News Foundation
San Francisco’s KQED has established a three-person team to cover the affordability and availability of housing in the Bay Area. The journalists will report for radio and online, as well as producing a podcast series. KQED
The McClatchy Co., publisher of the Sacramento Bee and 28 other papers nationally, could be in bankruptcy in the next year because of debt and pension obligations. Yahoo Finance
Notables in the news business have been honored for their achievements by the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Among the categories were unsung hero, career achievement, and journalist of the year. The full list is here: NorCal SPJ
After cutting 12 percent of its classes, City College of San Francisco is looking to carve more deeply to erase a $32 million deficit, the San Francisco Examiner reports. Among the programs contemplated for elimination: the journalism program. SF Examiner
San Francisco-based Twitter is banning political advertising from its platform, while Facebook, based in Menlo Park, has declined to do the same or to screen the ads for misinformation. Vox | NPR
David Perlman, science writer emeritus at the San Francisco Chronicle, has been awarded the American Geophysical Union’s Presidential Citation for Science and Society. Perlman, 100, began his Chronicle tenure in 1940. SF Chronicle | American Geophysical Union
John Stanley, author, onetime entertainment critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, and former host of television’s “Creature Features,” is among the inductees to San Francisco State University’s 2019 Alumni Hall of Fame. SFSU | YouTube
Public radio station KRCB reports that its 91.1 FM transmitter is off the air, perhaps damaged by the Kincaid fire. The station, which serves Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Geyserville, Windsor, Sebastopol, Forestville, and Calistoga, is telling listeners to switch to its 90.9 broadcast frequency or listen to live streaming on the web or on its mobile app.
San Francisco Chronicle political columnist Phil Matier has signed on as a contributor to ABC7/KGO-TV after years of appearing on CBS5/KPIX. He’ll be a part of the ABC7 Building a Better Bay Area project, described as “solution-based journalism and in-depth coverage of the growing issues everyone in the region faces.” ABC7
A federal judge rules that a San Francisco fine arts editor does not have to pay a $2.68 million judgment for reproducing copyrighted photos of Pablo Picasso paintings. The reproductions, published in a book, were a “fair use,” representing a small portion of the collection and did not undermine sales of the originals, the judge ruled. SF Chronicle | Courthouse News Service
The political fight over whether Uber and Lyft drivers should be independent contractors or employees could have dire effects for the state’s newspapers, the California News Publishers Association says. CNPA
In the digital age, lead and other materials combine at a San Francisco type foundry to make possible a centuries-old method of printing. Atlas Obscura
The First Amendment Coalition has persuaded a judge to unseal yet another search warrant on freelance journalist Bryan Carmody. All five warrants to search Carmody’s home, computer and phone have been unsealed and the results declared void. The Coalition called the searches “serious constitutional violations.” First Amendment Coalition
The Hearst Corp., owner of the San Francisco Chronicle, has purchased the Fremont building that houses the paper’s printing plant. The previous building owner, Transcontinental, turned over printing operations to the Chronicle in 2017. Canadian Manufacturing
KFOG radio, a mainstay of rock music on the Bay Area FM dial, is abandoning its format and its call sign to become a simulcast KNBR sports station. The move, effective Sept. 6, was announced Aug. 26 by owner Cumulus Media. SF Chronicle | Mercury News | Billboard
Staff changes: Jill Manuel has replaced the departing Samantha Cohen at Sacramento’s ABC News 10 TV, KTVU Channel 2’s Mark Ibanez has marked 40 years at the station, and KGO 7’s Mindi Bach becomes director/sports PR for Oracle.
Tom Fitzgerald, longtime San Francisco Chronicle sports writer covering Stanford University and a wide array of features, has retired. In his farewell to the staff, he said it was “an honor to work with such dedicated and talented people in a place where the goal was nothing less than the truth … I’ll always be very proud that I worked alongside you.”
Students from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley have won multiple Pillars and citations awards from the San Francisco/Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Journalists and a Bay Area member of Congress outline the forces challenging the news industry and describe some hopeful strategies during a panel discussion covered by the Richmond Pulse.
Gannett and GateHouse, the country’s two largest newspaper chains, have agreed to merge, cutting up to $300 million in expenses. In Northern California, Gannett owns the Redding Record Searchlight and the Salinas Californian. GateHouse owns the Stockton Record, Siskiyou Daily News, Dunsmuir News, Mount Shasta Herald, and Weed Press.
Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, found himself at the center of a furor after citing the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival to promote his app that connects journalists to experts.
The Warriors basketball team has named former player Kelenna Azubuike to do color analysis on NBC Sports Bay Area. He will replace Jim Barnett as the team moves to the new Chase Center in San Francisco this October. Barnett work Warrior radio broadcasts.
Reveal News has been nominated for two Emmy Awards for coverage of the Trump administration’s family separation policies and the prevalence of racial discrimination in lending.
The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism has named David Barstow as the head of investigative reporting, succeeding the retired Lowell Bergman. Barstow, a senior writer at the New York Times, is the winner of four Pulitzer Prizes.
Dismayed at the decline in local news coverage, U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, has introduced legislation that would make it easier for newspapers to attain nonprofit status. His proposal is part of a larger effort in Congress to shore up news outlets in the face of eroding revenue.
Alexis Terrazas, editor-in-chief of the bilingual community newspaper El Tecolote, offers a video look at the paper’s mission and the newsroom staff.
Sports talk host Gary Radnich, who last year announced his retirement from KRON TV, says he’s leaving KNBR radio at the end of the year. His departure comes amid a shakeup in which talk-show host Bob Fitzgerald is out and other on-air personalities will assume new time slots.
In her final column for the San Francisco Chronicle, Leah Garchik says farewell to readers and unveils a revealing personal habit.
Gary Cameron, a 1989 graduate of the San Francisco State University journalism program, has been named the department’s Distinguished Alumnus for his 37-years of work as a photojournalist. Cameron has worked for Newsday, the Washington Post and Reuters.
The late Oakland Tribune publisher Joe Knowland, flamboyant scion of a powerful publishing and political family, forecast the advent of online news back in 1974, a vice president at the news aggregator SmartNews says.
KRON-TV owes pension benefits to the domestic partner of a late station employee, a federal appeals court ruled.
San Francisco police searching for the source of a document leak handcuff a freelance journalist and confiscate his equipment after first trying to break down his front door with a sledgehammer. First Amendment advocates say police ignored California’s Shield law; the journalist declines to betray his source.
The First Amendment Coalition has filed another motion to unseal state Supreme Court records that it sees as a “secret docket” keeping pardon requests by governors from public view.
A Stockton school district that threatened to fire a Bear Creek High journalism teacher over a story about an 18-year-old senior pursuing an adult entertainment career has backed down after national publicity and a lawyer’s conclusion there was no basis for censorship or prior restraint.
Leah Garchik, a 47-year veteran of the San Francisco Chronicle, announced her upcoming retirement at the end of her May 1 column. (Note also the mention of former Chronicle journalist Duffy Jennings new book.) Garchik talks about her career on this Chronicle podcast.
North State Public Radio has won a Regional Edward R. Murrow award for its weekly show serving survivors of the Camp Fire. Archives of the program can be heard here.
Julia Angwin, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, has been ousted as founding editor of The Markup, a startup nonprofit news outlet. Her departure has spawned newsroom resignations and prompted major donor Craig Newmark of Craigslist to reassess his support.
Anna Badkhen, a former war correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for nonfiction. She has produced six nonfiction books, including “Peace Meals: Candy-Wrapped Kalashnikovs and Other War Stories.”
Sonoma Media Investments, parent of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, is free of debt after nearly seven years of ownership, says Pete Golis, a Press-Democrat columnist. He used the occasion to contemplate the value of local journalism.
Darrin Bell, a UC-Berkeley graduate, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Bell, who addresses civil rights, culture, politics, and social issues in his Candorville and Rudy Park strips, tells NPR that his work was inspired by the death of Trayvon Martin.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins calls on the Warriors basketball team to pay tribute to Bill King, the late, great broadcaster who described the game with the “breezy confidence of a well-trained magician.”
In an effort to overcome its ratings slide, KGO-810 radio is revamping its talk show lineup, in one case bringing back a host who was fired in 2011, writes Ben Fong-Torres in his “Radio Waves” column.
Some columnists are all about themselves, but for Carl Nolte — the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Native Son” — it’s all about the city, writes Jennifer Blot in the Nob Hill Gazette.
The First Amendment Coalition has compelled release of a new trove of previously secret documents regarding Gov. Jerry Brown’s effort to pardon former state Sen. Rod Wright. The sealing of the records by the California Supreme Court was challenged by the Coalition as a violation of state law and the First Amendment.
Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler describes
how he was detained and handcuffed as he covered a protest over the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has called for an investigation of police handling of the protest.
Peter Fimrite, a San Francisco Chronicle science writer, had a close-up view of the story when he was trapped by the floodwaters that enveloped the town of Guerneville.
Three suspects in the armed robbery of a KPIX-TV news crew have been arrested and have appeared in court. One is accused of shooting a security guard, who returned fire and injured on of the suspects.
Just in time for the startup of the 2019 baseball season, the Oakland A’s have announced agreements for game broadcasts as well as a streaming outlet through TuneIn radio.
Two UC-Berkeley graduates are finalists for the 2019 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. Journalists Daffodil Altan and Andrés Cediel investigated the forced labor of Guatemalan teenagers smuggled to the United States.
The San Francisco journalist Katherine Seligman has won a prestigious PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction for her manuscript on “homelessness and community in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco.” The award carries a $25,000 prize.
The Hunter Thompson archive is now open for public access at UC-Santa Cruz. Thompson, a prolific author, creator of the “gonzo” style of journalism, and onetime columnist for the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner, died in 2005.
The First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of journalists and the public, has won a court victory over law enforcement efforts to undermine a California police transparency law.
KPIX photographer Richard Villaroman writes about winning his first Emmy award, the “first highlight of my career and the beginning of a sense of pride that continues to fulfill me to this day.”
On the occasion of Black History Month, “Radio Waves” columnist Ben Fong-Torres salutes former radio station KDIA-1310 AM (“Lucky 13”) and the DJs who made possible the Top 40 format that once dominated the airwaves.
The Oakland A’s will soon have a radio outlet and a free steaming service for the 2019 baseball season, sources tell the San Francisco Chronicle.
A KCBS radio employee and rollerblading journalist is robbed of his skates at gunpoint and tweets about the experience.
The Northern California chapter of SPJ has announced its annual Freedom of Information award winners, including Bert Robinson of the Bay Area News Group, the Center for Investigative Reporting and Nina Martin of ProPublica.
Steve LaRosa, a former television feature reporter in Sacramento, has donated his video archives to the Center for Sacramento History, a public resource for researchers that also licenses video and film.
The sports and culture website The Ringer explores the innermost thoughts of sports columnist Ray Ratto, newly departed from NBC Sports Bay Area. “Insult,” the site says, “has been his professional stock-in-trade.”
The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan writes that readers should continue reading local newspapers like the East Bay Times and San Jose Mercury — even if they can’t support their ownership.
The Oakland A’s will have a radio outlet for the coming baseball season, but because “terrestrial radio is kind of dying,” the emphasis will be on streaming, team President Dave Kaval told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In his Radio Waves column, Ben Fong-Torres describes the celebration of Ray Taliafero’s life, attended by about 400 people.
He was still working at 98, and as he reached his 100th birthday, the acclaimed San Francisco Chronicle science writer David Perlman talked about his belief in science and his desire to be back at his desk. Listen to an interview with “Dr. Dave.”
A staff writer at The Enterprise of Davis gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the cop beat works at a hometown paper.
Bill Birnbauer, an investigative reporter and adjunct lecturer at Monash University shows why smaller nonprofit news outlets like the San Francisco Public Press struggle for a share of funding.
Elizabeth D. Herman, a UC-Berkeley doctoral candidate who studied historical portraits of powerful men, has helped shape the images in the New York Times’ “Women of the 116th Congress” special section.
KQED is renovating and expanding its headquarters at 2601 Mariposa St. in San Francisco. The project, part of its “Campaign 21” effort, will provide space for its growing staff and more community activities.
San Francisco Chronicle sports writers Ann Killion and Susan Slusser have been named co-California Sportswriters of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.
A Redding television reporter was attacked while live-streaming a story about drug overdoses that killed one and injured 12 others.
Five of the seven editorial employees of the East Bay Express have been laid off, to be replaced by freelancers. The dismissals come after the publication lost a suit claiming denial of overtime pay.
Lesley Stahl, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, writes in the New York Times about the impact of the late Marin County resident Sylvia Chase on the advancement of women in network TV news.
The #MeToo movement has arrived at Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper with numerous top staff connections to San Francisco journalism.
The Mountain Messenger, a Northern Sierra Nevada weekly that ranks as the state’s oldest, has no interest in the Internet and will remain on “pulp,” as its editor and publisher calls it.
Ray Ratto, the sardonically witty sports commentator, has left NBC Sports Bay Area and is headed to “whatever the next thing is.” Ratto has covered sports in print and on air for four decades.
Rock radio in the style of the late, lamented KSAN lives, says Ben Fong-Torres in the San Francisco Chronicle. It exists in the form of K-ZAP.org, a website with a downloadable app.
The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco will celebrate the life of Ray Taliaferro on Jan. 12. Speakers will include former KGO Radio news anchor Rosie Allen, talk radio host Ronn Owens, and two of the late KGO host’s sons.
Nion McEvoy, CEO of Chronicle Books, has been named president of the SFFILM Board of Directors.
GQ Magazine examines political threats to local news coverage with a lengthy piece on the Fresno Bee.
Neil Chase, executive editor of The Mercury News and the East Bay Times, has left to become CEO of the nonprofit news organization CALmatters. Chase oversaw coverage by the East Bay Times staff of the deadly Ghost Ship fire that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.
The Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust offers a nine-point guide to improve the image of news organizations.
Sacramento television reporter Frances Wang is leaving ABC 10 for an anchor and reporting slot at Miami’s CBS 4.
The kerfuffle over lyrics to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” at KOIT in San Francisco and other radio stations across the country prompted a New York Times story about warring cultural, gender and generational views.
Mike Wolcott, a veteran Northern California reporter and editor, has been named editor of the Chico Enterprise-Record and Oroville Mercury-Register. He’ll take over the job on Jan. 1, succeeding David Little, described by Wolcott as a “community icon.”
San Francisco Chronicle writer Scott Ostler reports that Associated Press sportswriter Janie McCauley has started a GoFundMe account to underwrite two college scholarships for Paradise High School fire victims who plan to study journalism or communications. She put up $400 for starter.
More from Ostler: He touts a book by fellow scribe Chris Mavraedis. Ostler calls “Falling in Love with Baseball: A collection of e-mails and memories” a tale “straight from the heart.”
A San Francisco Chronicle reporter who calls herself “The Fire Girl” on Twitter recounts her harrowing drive into the Camp Fire burn zone.
The Oakland A’s are looking for a new radio outlet after parting ways with its flagship station, 95.7 FM The Game.
The San Francisco Chronicle and two other news organizations have provided “terabytes of anonymous online reader data” for a university study of reader habits. It’s part of the “Local News Initiative” at Northwestern University.
Former San Francisco Giants ballplayer Kevin Frandsen, co-host of the radio show “KNBR Tonight,” has gained an expanded role as color commentator for Philadelphia Phillies radio broadcasts.
The San Francisco Chronicle has named Soleil Ho to replace retired food critic Michael Bauer. The paper described Ho as “a nationally recognized food journalist and trained chef.”
KOIT radio has banned a popular 1940s Christmas classic from its playlist, worried the lyrics might not square with the #MeToo movement. But amid pushback from listeners, it decided to conduct a yes-or-no poll to gauge reaction. UPDATE: After hearing from “thousands of listeners,” KOIT switched course and reinstated the song to its holiday playlist.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier and Ross column will become the Phil Matier column at the end of December. The team, which has written insider columns together for 28 years, announced in their column Sunday, Dec. 2 that Andrew Ross will retire by the end of 2018. Matier, who also works as a local TV and radio news and policital analyst, will write a twice weekly column for the Chronicle after Ross departs.
Pioneering radio and television journalist Belva Davis, the first African-American woman 
to become a television reporter on the West Coast, has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame along with other notables such as musician Joan Baez, chef Thomas Keller and actor Robert Redford.
Onetime KGO-radio host Ray Taliaferro, missing since Nov. 10, has been found dead, according to his family. A San Francisco resident, he was last seen in southern Illinois near the Kentucky border visiting a house his wife had inherited, according to reports. His death was under investigation. Hear KGO broadcaster Pat Thurston discuss her longtime friend.
Longtime sports writer and columnist C.W. Nevius has taken to the stage with a one-man show at The Marsh theater in San Francisco. “The Oakland Raiders, True Crime & Coming of Age in SF” tells the story of his career in journalism. Retired in 2016, Nevius will perform through Dec. 15.
Jo Anne Wallace, the KQED-FM executive who helped launch the national syndications of “Car Talk” and “Fresh Air,” as well as the “California Report,” has retired, reports San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ben Fong-Torres. In a statement, the station said Wallace was a “central figure in a number of critical moments in the development of NPR’s growth nationally.”
Journalists from the Chico Enterprise-Record and the Paradise Post continue to report the news, despite extraordinary obstacles posed by the Camp Fire, CNN says.
The frequency, intensity and rapid spread of wildfires in California have prompted the San Francisco Chronicle’s newsroom to adopt new approaches to coverage, says the paper’s editor, Audrey Cooper.
Reveal News, part of the Emeryville-based Center for Investigative Reporting, is developing local news teams in San Jose and New Orleans to demonstrate how print, broadcast and internet news outlets can collaborate to produce high-profile investigative coverage.
The Chico Enterprise-Record is managing to cover the deadliest wildfire in California history, just a year after its sister paper covered the Oroville Dam spillway failure under the same editor.
Neil Chase, the top editor of the Mercury News and East Bay Times warns of dangers ahead without major growth in digital readership and revenue.
A Mercury News reporter who tirelessly sought public records, a KGO-TV reporter who just retired and a Humboldt County blogger were among the 2018 winners of “Excellence in Journalism” awards from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The Bay Area chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association is offering three $1,500 scholarships to graduating high school seniors, college students and graduate students pursuing journalism studies or careers. Details are here.
Backed financially by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, a news site called The Markup will investigate the effects of technology on society. The editor-in-chief is Julia Angwin, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter.
The Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame has announced its 2018 inductees, including such luminaries as Scott Beach, Chris Edwards, and Greg Papa, as well as off-air staffers such as marketing whiz Jude Heller.
Carolyn Tyler, a reporter and anchor at KGO-TV, has retired after 32 years. “I thought I was going to be a teacher or a nurse because those were the only things that I really knew or thought were probably open to me. And then I saw my first black, female newscaster on television. I said wow, I think this is something that I could do,” she told the station.
The National Association of Black Journalists has awarded a “Salute to Excellence” honor to San Francisco radio station KALW for the documentary “Nice Tribal Wear, Now Take it Off.”
Longtime radio marketing director Jude Heller will be inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in a “specialty” category, according to Radio Waves columnist Ben Fong-Torres. Heller worked behind the scenes for KFOG and other Bay Area stations. Also in Radio Waves: Bill Wattenburg, a KGO-radio host for 40 years has died.
The publisher of a group of local Sonoma County newspapers is selling equity through “direct public offerings” to help sustain the publications. It has been characterized as a first for a local newspaper.
The U.S. International Trade Commission has nixed Trump administration tariffs on imported newsprint, which drove up costs and imperiled many newspapers. San Francisco Chronicle editorial page editor John Diaz wrote that prices had jumped as much as 30 percent.
A constellation of bright stars are being recognized by the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame this year. Ben Fong-Torres reports in his San Francisco Chronicle Radio Waves column that many inductees harken back to stations KGO and KSFO when they were in their prime.
KQED-FM has won a National 2018 Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association for its radio series “Inside Santa Clara Jails, Predatory Bail Schemes Flourished for Years.”
In another sign that newspapers have become multimedia organizations, the San Francisco Chronicle has won seven Emmy Awards for news videos.
Stephen Buel, publisher of the alternative weekly East Bay Express, has resigned and says he is pursuing a sale of the paper after deleting blog posts and using a racial slur.
The Sutro Tower complex in San Francisco is getting new antennas to reflect the latest broadcast standards for UHF TV. The sale of higher UHF frequencies for cellphone service requires new antennas to serve viewers who watch UHF TV without cable.
Michael Bauer, the nationally known food and restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, is retiring. The paper announced that his final review will run later this summer. Bauer said he plans to freelance and work on a book.
KPIX VP of News Dan Rosenheim has retired after an 18-year run at the TV station. He previously was news director at KRON-TV and managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Community radio station KXSF is about to join the airwaves, at 102.5 on the FM dial. The low-power station has emerged in the spirit of KUSF, which went off the air in 2011 and featured local music and community programming.
Former Cox Media Group VP Bill Nagel has been named publisher of the Hearst Corp.-owned San Francisco Chronicle, replacing Jeff Johnson, now president of Hearst’s newspaper division.
Veteran sports personality Gary Radnich is retiring from KRON4 News, though he’s not leaving the airwaves. Radnich, who spent 34 years with the station, apparently will continue his sports talk show on KNBR-680 AM.
The Half Moon Bay Review has been acquired by the Coastside News Group from Arizona-based Wick Communications, which owned the paper for more than 30 years. According to the paper, the transaction restores the Review to local ownership.
KCBS-AM 740 is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its shift to a (nearly) all news format. The station has created a website devoted to recalling the history of the station, features on notable on-air personalities, and jingles familiar and forgettable.
Rosalie Howarth, a fixture on KFOG radio for 34 years, went off the air after station owner Cumulus Media declined to renew her contract.
The San Francisco Examiner has reduced its print publication to three days a week, saying it’s putting more emphasis on its digital editions. The change was effective Jan. 15.
Kathi Duffel, journalism adviser at Bear Creek High School in Stockton, has received the 2018 award for advising excellence from the California Journalism & Media Affiliates. The highly regarded teacher was previously honored by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee.
A crowd of nearly 175 KRON-TV alums gathered for what San Francisco columnist Leah Garchik called a “rollicking exKRONvicts reunion” at a downtown restaurant. Luminaries included Fred LaCosse, Terry Lowry, Suzanne Shaw, Karl Sonkin and Jan Wahl.
Bay City News, which provides coverage for newspapers and TV and radio stations throughout the nine-county Bay Area, has been purchased by journalist Katherine Ann Rowlands, who got her start at BCN.
Mike Shumann, a sports reporter and anchor at KGO-TV for 24 years, has parted ways with the station after he was seen on tape apparently taking a Golden State Warriors’ security member’s jacket. Shumann apologized and said the departure was amicable.
Ben Fong-Torres reports that KGO radio has discontinued stage performer and radio talk show host Brian Copeland’s weekday program. Also, KITS “Live 105” has been rebranded “Alt 105.3.” Programming apparently remains the same.
Bay Area news and talk station KPFA-FM has been rescued from seizure by an emergency $2 million loan. The station was under threat of closure after a judge’s ruling that Empire State Realty Trust could claim assets to cover a back debt on a sister station’s New York antenna tower.
The late San Francisco writer and editor Warren Hinckle was nothing if not colorful. When he died, he left behind an array of anecdotes, some of them related in this retrospective by the Chronicle’s Sam Whiting.
ABC TV-7 journalist David Louie will give the keynote address at the San Francisco Press Club Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards dinner Nov. 16 in Burlingame.
William R. Hearst III, former editor and publisher of the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner, has launched “The Journal of Alta California,” a quarterly magazine on the politics, culture, personalities and history of the state.
The Tenderloin Times, a community-based newspaper that served the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco from 1977 to 1994, has returned to life in a fashion at the Tenderloin Museum. The paper, which covered homelessness, local politics and issues of all stripes, is on display through March 30. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Caille Milner describes the exhibit.
He may be cranky, and he’s certainly controversial, but Tim Crews, publisher of the Sacramento Valley Mirror has won over legions of followers — even some who are the subject of his coverage.
The Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame is admitting a constellation of stars for 2017, according to writer Ben Fong-Torres. Among the many notables: Dan Sorkin, Peter Cleaveland, Michael Krasny and Doug Sovern.
Holy Toledo! The late Bay Area sports broadcaster Bill King is in the baseball Hall of Fame!
In the San Francisco Chronicle newsroom, he’s “Dr. Dave.” Among journalists across the country, he’s the dean of American science writers. Dave Perlman, who began his Chronicle career 77 years ago, is calling it quits — sort of. He gets to keep his desk, his computer, and the unceasing admiration of his colleagues. Listen to Perlman’s conversation with NPR’s Steve Inskeep.
The San Francisco Bay View Newspaper announces that Troy Williams is the publication’s new editor. Williams served time at San Quentin Prison, where he says he co-founded the “first satellite chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists inside a prison in the United States.” For more details on his life and his ambitions for the Bay View, click here.
Bob Bragman, a producer at SFGate.com, takes a walk down memory lane as he prepares to retire. His mini-history of the Chronicle building at 901 Mission St. is accompanied by 90 photographs reflecting the building’s glorious past.
A U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco has blocked enforcement of a state law banning the entertainment site IMDB from publishing the ages of actors’ ages without consent. Intended to deter age discrimination in Hollywood, the law would provide little relief and almost certainly violated the First Amendment, the judge said.
Mark Shaw, a lawyer and journalist from Burlingame, is the author of a new book, “The Reporter Who Knew Too Much,” which asserts that famed reporter Dorothy Kilgallen was murdered during her investigation of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Read his plea to reopen the cold case.
The Radio Television Digital News Foundation is offering scholarships and fellowships to current college students and to journalists with less than a decade of experience in broadcast and digital fields. See the announcement for details. The deadline is this May 31.
The journalism and photography departments at City College of San Francisco present “STREET LIFE: SF by Day, SF by Night,” a photo exhibit depicting “the story, breaking news, general news and everyday life of San Francisco people.” An opening reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Feb. 24 will include food and refreshments. The exhibit continues through April 14 in Bungalow 615 below George M. Rush Stadium. For details, call 415-239-3446.
Mark the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by watching this KPIX-TV excerpt from a sermon 50 years ago in San Francisco. King rallied his followers to take action in support of racial equality, declaring that “prayer alone will not solve the problem of racial injustice.”
Award-winning veteran television reporter and anchor Wendy Tokuda has retired after decades at stations in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. She also produced the program “Students Rising Above,” the namesake of a nonprofit that raises money to help at-risk teens go to college.
There is labor strife at KNBR-AM, where unionized employees are seeking wage increases from owner Cumulus Media. The company reportedly has countered with little more than San Francisco’s $13 minimum wage. Top-name on-air talent would not be subject to the minimum, the San Francisco Chronicle said.
After 37 years in Bay Area media, Mike Sugerman is leaving for New York, along with his wife, Janice Wright, a KCBS-AM anchor. In a farewell video, Sugerman says they are headed east to be close to their family and the newest addition, a grandchild. Along with his work on KCBS and KPIX-TV, Sugerman once read the news for famed DJ Dr. Don Rose at KFRC-AM.
“Acoustic Sunrise,” one of the programs purged from radio station KFOG-FM by corporate owner Cumulus Media, was quickly revived, San Francisco Chronicle writer Sam Whiting reported. Host Rosalie Howarth described the show as a Sunday morning “oasis of serenity.”
Broadcast Legends is presenting “KYA Day” June 23 in honor of the legendary Top 40 AM radio station. The group promises to “celebrate 90 years of KYA history with a gala reunion luncheon featuring KYA stars of the past, a multimedia retrospective and plenty of fun and surprises.” Details, a brief history of the station, and a link for reservations are here.
Veteran journalist Dawn Garcia has been named the next director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships Program at Stanford. She replaces James Bettinger, who retires Aug. 31 after 27 years with the program, which emphasizes journalism innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership.
Popular Bay Area radio host Ronn Owens, reported to be reassigned to KSFO 560 AM as part of Cumulus Radio’s restructurings and layoffs at KGO 810 AM and KFOG 104.5 FM, was restored to KGO before the move ever took place. Cumulus said it was a response to “listener outcry.”
KGO 810 AM and KFOG 104.5 FM, both owned by Cumulus Radio, have been hit with significant layoffs, strategies that VP Justin Wittmayer said were part of programming strategies that would “help us better meet the needs and demands of our listeners, advertisers and community.” Details are here, here and here.
KNTV in San Jose has bolstered its reporting staff with three additions, including veteran crime and investigative reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken, formerly with the San Francisco Chronicle. Most recently at the paper he covered the San Bruno gas line explosion and costly problems with the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge.
The website for the San Francisco Bay Guardian has been revived as a site for political endorsements, opinion pieces and “Best of the Bay” listings. The Guardian also is digitizing it’s archives. The weekly Guardian and its website were shuttered in 2014 by its owners, the San Francisco Media Co. Former staffers regained control of the name a year later.
Peter Hartlaub, the San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic, waxes nostalgic about TV shows set in San Francisco. See what made the grade in Hartlaub’s imaginary “San Francisco TV Show Hall of Fame.”
Mark Twain’s 18 months as a daily newspaper scribe in San Francisco was a misery for him and a failure for his boss at the Morning Call, writes Gary Kamiya in the San Francisco Chronicle. (Behind paywall: requires Chronicle subscription)
High school and college journalism students aiming for a career in the business are encouraged to enter the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club’s scholarship competition. The deadline is Oct. 23.
Veteran San Francisco Chronicle political writer Carla Marinucci has taken a position at Politico, where she’ll be covering the California scene.
There are household names like John Madden, pioneering newscasters like Gil Haar, and behind-the-scenes staffers like music librarian Elma Greer. Radio Waves writer Ben Fong-Torres previews these and other 2015 inductees into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.
Henry K. Lee, the prolific police reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and one of the few reporters ever to inspire a song, has packed his police scanner and is going to KTVU, Channel 2.
The president of the San Francisco Art Institute has been selected as the San Francisco Chronicle’s art critic. Charles Desmarais begins the job Nov. 1, replacing Kenneth Baker, who retired this year.
Robert Salladay, editorial director for the Center for Investigative Reporting, has been selected to develop the news organization’s documentary film unit.
Stanley Roberts, reporter for KRON-TV’s “People Behaving Badly” show was home recovering from what the station said was “a series of small strokes.” KRON said he was on “the fast lane to recovery.” Read more about Roberts in this SF Weekly profile.
Two former KGO-TV producers have documented the life of Korla Pandit, the exotic TV personality who effected the appearance of an Indian swami but was actually an African American from Missouri. The documentary, “Korla,” will premiere on Aug. 20 at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.
Fifty years after the first issue of the Berkeley Barb hit the streets, staff members gathered again to reconnect, tell stories, and recall the political, social and economic changes that followed the paper’s 15-year run.
As financial pressures grow, newspapers hunt for new ways to generate revenue, preferably without sacrificing the journalism. But the line between the news and business side sometimes gets thin. According to San Francisco Magazine, the line at SF Weekly disappeared. Now, says Columbia Journalism Review, it’s back.
Don Bleu of radio station KOSF as well as KGO’s Jeannie Lynch and Jennifer Hodges are out. Hal Ramey of KCBS-Radio is out, too, replaced by Kevin Radich, who previously was let go by KGO. And longtime San Francisco reporter Barbara Taylor has retired from KCBS, not long after the station said it was closing the City Hall bureau and switching her to general assignment. All this and more from Ben Fong-Torres “Radio Waves” column in the San Francisco Chronicle.
KGO-Radio talk show host Ronn Owens will undergo surgery intended to relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, which was diagnosed 13 years ago.
The San Francisco Examiner celebrates its 150th anniversary with an updated logo and an updated website that includes a slideshow of 50 front pages from the past. A feature story recounts the paper’s history from its founding as the “The Daily Examiner.”
In a series of staff stories, San Francisco State University’s journalism program has honored alums, recognized the work of a retired professor and taken note of an enrollment increase.
He’s responsible for the sound of the San Francisco Giants radio broadcasts, but you won’t hear his voice. Engineer and producer Lee Jones keeps the game on the air, writes radio columnist Ben Fong-Torres. Also mentioned in the column: a memorial for Gary Owens, the famed “Laugh In” announcer who worked early in his career at Oakland’s KEWB radio, and a farewell to Stuart Hyde, founder of the radio-TV-film department at San Francisco State University.
Larry Kramer, for five years executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner, has stepped down as publisher of USA TODAY and will join the board of directors of parent publishing company Gannett. The shift comes as Gannett prepares to spin off its publishing arm from its digital and broadcast operations.
The San Francisco Peninsula Press Club has selected students from nine Bay Area high schools for outstanding newspaper and yearbook awards. The winners were selected from 375 entries.
Kristen Go, a deputy managing editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, has been promoted to managing editor, digital operations. She will be responsible for fostering improvements in the paper’s online efforts.
KGO-810, once king of the local AM airwaves, is returning to talk radio after abandoning the genre for an all-news format. Also in radio writer Ben Fong-Torres’ column in the San Francisco Chronicle: Lee “Baby” Simms, a dj with KFOG, KYA and KISQ, among others, is dead at 70; Keith Lockhart, classical music host with KKHI-AM, died at 87; and Rod McKuen, the Oakland native, poet, songwriter and, as a teenager, dj at KROW, died at 81.
His dad was Don Sherwood, the self-described “World’s Greatest Disc Jockey” on KSFO, the self-described “World’s Greatest Radio Station.” Today Greg Sherwood hosts KQED-FM and TV pledge drives. He talks about his father in this Q&A& with the Chronicle’s Sam Whiting.
The San Francisco Chronicle marked its 150th anniversary on Jan. 16. In his Sunday column, Carl Nolte, one of the paper’s veteran writers, a recalled the flavor of the place when he first stepped into the newsroom in 1961.
Audrey Cooper, previously the paper’s managing editor, is named editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle. Cooper formerly was metro editor of the Stockton Record and also had worked at the Tri-Valley Herald of Pleasanton and the Associated Press.
The late Ray Dolby, the legendary sound engineer whose Dolby Laboratories is a Media Museum consortium partner, has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Acclaimed journalist and author Betty Medsger paid a visit to San Francisco State University, where she was the first female faculty member, a department chair and founder of the Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism. Her book, “The Burglary,” has won plaudits for recounting details of FBI activities during the J. Edgar Hoover era.
The San Francisco Chronicle has abandoned its decision to charge online readers for much of its local content. The “pay wall” came down after a four-month experiment.
Wes “Scoop” Nisker is a onetime mainstay of Bay Area FM radio who coined the phrase, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” In this New York Times essay, he writes about how he has navigated his way through life.
Hearst Corp. names new publisher and president at San Francisco Chronicle.
Steve Rossi, a Knight-Ridder and MediaNews Group executive, becomes publisher of the Bay Area News Group, replacing Mac Tully, who takes the president’s slot at The Denver Post.