New York Times Goes Local — in San Francisco
Competition With Region's Papers as Times Unveils 'Bay Area' Pages
Oct 28, 2009
The New York Times’ introduction of a local section in San Francisco places the newspaper in competition to some degree with the region’s other publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and the Oakland Tribune. The Times added Bay Area metro pages to its San Francisco print editions October 16, which appear on Fridays and Sundays. In addition, the paper has a new blog on its nytimes.com site on local topics called “The Bay Area,” featuring links to stories.
In an October 15, 2009 interview with paidContent.org, “NYT’s Heekin-Canedy: By Itself, Bay Area Report Won’t Be Reason To Subscribe,” Times President and General Manager Scott Heekin-Canedy said he realizes that many think this move is intended to directly counter severely struggling local newspapers such as the Chronicle. “In our view, historically all of the evidence shows we’re a supplement to, not a substitute for, the local paper.”
In “N.Y. Times Rolls Out, is Welcomed by Local Competition” in the October 19, 2009 BayNewser blog, Jason Turbow said: “One has to expect that local editors would refrain from sounding alarm bells in public, even if they feel like doing so. The reality, of course, is that even if the new edition doesn’t so much as dent other papers’ editorial coverage, it will still draw already-diminished ad dollars away from their shrinking budgets.”
Nonprofit Online News Venture Could Provide Future San Francisco Content for New York Times
At present the Times' 10-person San Francisco news bureau staff, along with other contributors, is providing the additional local coverage of the city, the Silicon Valley, the East Bay, and surrounding region. However, future content could come from the Bay Area News Project, a nonprofit online news organization seeking to establish a local news site largely supported by public donations and foundation funding, and not corporate advertising or government grants.
Involved in the project are the San Francisco-based Hellman Family Foundation, public radio station KQED-FM, and the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The foundation donated $5 million in seed money to the effort.
"Few of the local news start-ups around the country began with even $1 million in backing, or as many as a dozen staff journalists and regular contributors," Richard Perez-Pena wrote in the September 25, 2009 New York Times in "In San Francisco, Plans to Start News Web site." "In size and resources, the Bay Area project may be closer to online investigative reporting operations like the Center for Public Integrity and ProPublica."
Project Collaboration for Online News and With Local Public Radio and Television Stations
An objective in having this collaboration is to publish news online, as well as broadcast it on KQED radio and on local television stations, and have a print edition that would be part of the New York Times' Bay Area pages each week.
However, Robert Gammon, writing in the September 25, 2009 East Bay Express, in "UC Berkeley Threatens Bay Area Journalism," questioned whether the university's participation might force other local publications into further cutbacks to remain competitive. "The massive free-labor workforce will give the new venture a huge advantage over established Bay Area media organizations that depend on paid, veteran journalists to gather and put together news stories."
Editor and publisher Eve Batey of the San Francisco Appeal online newspaper cautioned papers, specifically the Chronicle, not to put regional dominance over an interest in quality reporting, even if from a local online news organization. In a September 28, 2009 column, "Chronicle Vows To 'Smash' "Naive' New Media Organizations," she asked: "But why this fear that someone else might do good work?" "You all, as news readers, know that there are way more Bay Area stories than there are people reporting on them."
Other Localized News Publication Editions in Works for San Francisco, Chicago
The Wall Street Journal also has launched a localized Bay Area edition in San Francisco in the A section of its Thursday print edition and added a Bay Area link on its Web site. It also is considering local coverage in Los Angeles and Chicago. At the same time the New York Times has launched a similar local news section in Chicago following on its San Francisco edition.
The Times would partner with a new Chicago-based nonprofit group, the Chicago News Cooperative, to provide local coverage. One of the funders is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation which is known for its financial contributions to National Public Radio (NPR). Other prospective participants are Chicago public radio station WBEZ-FM, and WTTW-TV, a local public television station.
"The cooperative, now a non-profit, will use a new Illinois law to change to a low-profit limited liability company next year," Ann Saphir wrote in the October 27, 2009 Crain's Chicago Business in "Tribune's Greising joins O'Shea's Chicago News Cooperative." "The structure allows it to take money from foundations as well as private investors."
Former Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune editor James O'Shea is joining the Chicago News Cooperative along with James Warren and David Greising, both formerly with the Tribune.
The Times would be competing for news and advertising against the Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, both of whose corporate parent organizations are in bankruptcy.
John Cook, in the October 22, 2009 Gawker in "New York Times Hires Gang Who Killed Chicago Tribune to Kill Tribune," said: "The Chicago Tribune is a terrible newspaper that was driven into bankruptcy by timid bureaucrats posing as editors. So who is the New York Times hiring to launch its new Chicago edition? The same people that ruined the Trib."
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