Chronicle’s Demise is Self-Inflicted

If you missed the news that the San Francisco Chronicle is cutting 25% of its news staff, it was “reported” in a tiny corner of the paper’s Saturday, May 19 Business section. While many blame the Chronicle’s drastic circulation decline in recent years on the Internet, this ignores the paper’s failure to address readers’ interests. The paper has no political columnist that regularly analyzes issues facing local politicians, nobody of stature covering national politics, extraordinarily weak cultural and arts coverage, and few columnists that anyone cares about reading. By targeting upscale readers over age fifty and ignoring the needs of those most likely to resort to the Internet, the Chronicle’s collapse is no surprise.
Full Article, Beyond Chron, May 22, 2007

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My email to Beyond Chron, with the subject "Two Remaining Pulses At The Chronicle"


Now hold on, Randy,

Mark Morford is one of the best columnists around anywhere. With the passing of Hunter S. Thompson, perhaps the best period. Besides insight and style Mark has guts, an increasingly rare quality in print.

High praise should also go to Tim Goodman for his coverage of the mind numbing soothing blue orb of mind control. How he can watch so much television and be able to formulate multiple-syllable words, let alone cut through all the P.R. garbage of the television industry with such style and insight, is amazing.

Aside from the shining stars of Morford and Goodman, however, your article on the ailing SF Chronicle is, alas, quite correct.

Terry L. Clark