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The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
of
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is owned by the
Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. It is the only major daily paper covering the city and county of San Francisco. The paper benefited from the growth of San Francisco and had the largest
newspaper circulation Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...
on the
West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...
by 1880. Like other newspapers, it experienced a rapid fall in circulation in the early 21st century and was ranked 18th nationally by circulation in the first quarter of 2021. In 1994, the newspaper launched the '' SFGate'' website, with a soft launch in March and an official launch on November 3, 1994, including both content from the newspaper and other sources. "The Gate", as it was known at launch, was the first large market newspaper website in the world, co-founded by Allen Weiner and John Coate. It went on to staff up with its own columnists and reporters, and even won a Pulitzer Prize for Mark Fiore's political cartoons. In 2013, the newspaper launched its own namesake website, SFChronicle.com, and began the separation of ''SFGate'' and the ''Chronicle'' brands, which today are two separately run entities.


History

The ''Chronicle'' was founded by brothers
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...
and M. H. de Young in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'', funded by a borrowed $20 gold piece. Their brother Gustavus was named with Charles on the masthead. Within 10 years, it had the largest circulation of any newspaper west of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
. The paper's first office was in a building at the corner of Bush and Kearney Streets. The brothers then commissioned a building from Burnham and Root at 690 Market Street at the corner of Third and Kearney Streets to be their new headquarters, in what became known as Newspaper Row. The new building, San Francisco's first skyscraper, was completed in 1889. It was damaged in the 1906 earthquake, but it was rebuilt under the direction of William Polk, Burnham's associate in San Francisco. That building, known as the "Old ''Chronicle'' Building" or the "DeYoung Building", still stands and was restored in 2007. It is a historic landmark and is the location of the
Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences is a luxury residential skyscraper in the Financial District, San Francisco, Financial District of San Francisco, California. The residences are built atop the historic Old Chronicle Building, sometimes ca ...
. In 1924, the ''Chronicle'' commissioned a new headquarters at 901 Mission Street on the corner of 5th Street in what is now the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco. It was designed by Charles Peter Weeks and William Peyton Day in the
Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
style, but most of the Gothic Revival detailing was removed in 1968 when the building was re-clad with stucco. This building remains the ''Chronicle''s headquarters in 2017, although other concerns are located there as well. Between
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and 1971, new editor
Scott Newhall Scott Newhall (January 21, 1914 – October 26, 1992) was a newspaper editor known for his stewardship of the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Early life Scott Newhall was born on January 21, 1914, into the family that owned the Newhall Land and Far ...
took a bold and somewhat provocative approach to news presentation. Newhall's ''Chronicle'' included investigative reporting by such journalists as
Pierre Salinger Pierre Emil George Salinger (June 14, 1925 – October 16, 2004) was an American journalist, author and politician. He served as the ninth White House Press Secretary, press secretary for United States presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon ...
, who later played a prominent role in national politics, and Paul Avery, the staffer who pursued the trail of the self-named " Zodiac Killer", who sent a
cryptogram A cryptogram is a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand. Substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by ...
in three sections in letters to the ''Chronicle'' and two other papers during his murder spree in the late 1960s. It also featured such colorful columnists as
Pauline Phillips Pauline Esther Phillips (born Friedman; July 4, 1918 – January 16, 2013), also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known Dear Abby, ''Dear Abby'' newspaper column in 1956. It beca ...
, who wrote under the name "
Dear Abby ''Dear Abby'' is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name. History According to Pau ...
", "Count Marco" (Marc Spinelli),
Stanton Delaplane Stanton Hill ("Stan") Delaplane (12 October 1907 – 18 April 1988) was an American travel writer, credited with introducing Irish coffee to the United States. Called "last of the old irreplaceables" by fellow-columnist Herb Caen, he worked for ...
, Terence O'Flaherty, Lucius Beebe, Art Hoppe, Charles McCabe, and
Herb Caen Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily columnist, column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuo ...
. The newspaper grew in circulation to become the city's largest, overtaking the rival ''
San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...
''. The demise of other San Francisco dailies through the late 1950s and early 1960s left the ''Examiner'' and the ''Chronicle'' to battle for circulation and readership superiority.


Joint operating agreement

The competition between the ''Chronicle'' and ''Examiner'' took a financial toll on both papers until the summer of 1965, when a merger of sorts created a Joint Operating Agreement under which the ''Chronicle'' became the city's sole morning daily while the ''Examiner'' changed to afternoon publication (which ultimately led to a declining readership). The newspapers were officially owned by the San Francisco Newspaper Agency, which managed sales and distribution for both newspapers and was charged with ensuring that one newspaper's circulation did not grow at the expense of the other.
Revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...
was split equally, which led to a situation widely understood to benefit the ''Examiner'', since the ''Chronicle'', which had a circulation four times larger than its rival, subsidized the afternoon newspaper.Gorney, Cynthia Gorney (January/February 1999)
"The State of The American Newspaper – The Battle Of the Bay"
. ajr.org. ''
American Journalism Review The ''American Journalism Review'' (''AJR'') was an American magazine covering topics in journalism. It was launched in 1977 as the ''Washington Journalism Review'' by journalist Roger Kranz. It ceased publication in 2015. History and profile T ...
''. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
The two newspapers produced a joint Sunday edition, with the ''Examiner'' publishing the news sections and the Sunday magazine, and the ''Chronicle'' responsible for the tabloid-sized entertainment section and the book review. From 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified-advertising operation. This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the ''Chronicle'' in 2000.


Push into the suburbs

Beginning in the early 1990s, the ''Chronicle'' began to face competition beyond the borders of San Francisco. The newspaper had long enjoyed a wide reach as the de facto "
newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large newspaper circulation, circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and i ...
" in Northern California, with distribution along the Central Coast, the Central Valley, and even as far as
Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
, Hawaii. There was little competition in the Bay Area suburbs and other areas that the newspaper served, but as Knight-Ridder consolidated the '' Mercury News'' in 1975; purchased the ''Contra Costa Times'' (now ''
East Bay Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa and Al ...
'') in 1995; and as the Denver-based Media News Group made a rapid purchase of the remaining newspapers on the East Bay by 1985, the ''Chronicle'' realized it had to step up its suburban coverage. The ''Chronicle'' launched five zoned sections to appear in the Friday edition of the paper. The sections covered San Francisco and four different suburban areas. They each featured a unique columnist, enterprise pieces, and local news specific to the community. The newspaper added 40 full-time staff positions to work in the suburban bureaus. Despite the push to focus on suburban coverage, the ''Chronicle'' was hamstrung by the Sunday edition, which, being produced by the San Francisco-centric "un-''Chronicle''" ''Examiner'', had none of the focus on the suburban communities that the ''Chronicle'' was striving to cultivate.


Sale to Hearst

The de Young family controlled the paper, via the
Chronicle Publishing Company The Chronicle Publishing Company was a print and broadcast media corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California that was in operation from 1865 until 2000. Owned for the whole of its existence by the de Young family, CPC was most notable ...
, until July 27, 2000, when it was sold to Hearst Communications, Inc., which owned the ''Examiner''. Following the sale, the Hearst Corporation transferred the ''Examiner'' to the Fang family, publisher of the ''
San Francisco Independent The ''San Francisco Independent'' was the largest non-daily newspaper in the United States. It helped to popularize the free newspaper (advertising supported) as a business model at the beginning of the 21st century, and also rescued one of the ...
'' and '' AsianWeek'', along with a $66-million subsidy. Under the new owners, the ''Examiner'' became a free tabloid, leaving the ''Chronicle'' as the only daily
broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...
newspaper in San Francisco. In 1949, the de Young family founded
KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's outlet for The CW. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV has studios ...
(Channel 4), the Bay Area's third television station. Until the mid-1960s, the station (along with KRON-FM), operated from the basement of the ''Chronicle'' Building, on Mission Street. KRON moved to studios at 1001 Van Ness Avenue (on the former site of St. Mary's Cathedral, which burned down in 1962). KRON was sold to Young Broadcasting in 2000 and, after years of being San Francisco's NBC affiliate, became an independent station on January 1, 2002, when NBC—tired of Chronicle's repeated refusal to sell KRON to the network and, later, Young's asking price for the station being too high—purchased
KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Sta ...
in San Jose from Granite Broadcasting Corporation for $230 million. Since the Hearst Corporation took ownership in 2000 the ''Chronicle'' has made periodic changes to its organization and design, but on February 1, 2009, as the newspaper began its 145th year of publication, the ''Chronicle'' Sunday edition introduced a redesigned paper featuring a modified logo, new section, and page organization, new features, bolder, colored section-front banners and new headline and text typography. The frequent bold-faced, all-capital-letter headlines typical of the ''Chronicle''s front page were eliminated. Editor Ward Bushee's note heralded the issue as the start of a "new era" for the ''Chronicle''. On July 6, 2009, the paper unveiled some alterations to the new design that included yet newer section fronts and wider use of color photographs and graphics. In a special section publisher, Frank J. Vega described new, state-of-the-art printing operations enabling the production of what he termed "A Bolder, Brighter ''Chronicle''." The newer look was accompanied by a reduction in the size of the broadsheet. Such moves are similar to those made by other prominent American newspapers such as the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' and ''
Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...
'', which in 2008 unveiled radically new designs even as changing reader demographics and general economic conditions necessitated physical reductions of the newspapers. On November 9, 2009, the ''Chronicle'' became the first newspaper in the nation to print on high-quality glossy paper. The high-gloss paper is used for some section fronts and inside pages.


Staff

The current publisher of the ''Chronicle'' is Bill Nagel. Audrey Cooper was named editor-in-chief in January 2015 and was the first woman to hold the position. In June 2020 she left to be the editor-in-chief of WNYC, New York City. In August 2020, Hearst named Emilio Garcia-Ruiz the publication's editor-in-chief. Ann Killion has written for ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
''.
Carl Nolte Carl Nolte (born c. 1933) is an American journalist. He writes the "Native Son" column in the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Personal life and education Nolte was born and raised in San Francisco. When he was a child, he lived in the Potrero Hill ...
is a journalist and columnist.


Web

The newspaper's websites are at SFGate.com (free) and SFChronicle.com (premium). Originally ''The Gate'', SFGATE was one of the earliest major market newspaper websites to be launched, on November 3, 1994, at the time of The Newspaper Guild
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...
; the union published its own news website, ''San Francisco Free Press'', whose staff joined SFGATE when the strike ended. SFChronicle.com launched in 2013 and since 2019 has been run separately from SFGATE, whose staff are independent of the print newspaper. across all platforms the Chronicle has 34 million unique visitors each month, with SFGATE receiving 135.9 million pageviews and 25.1 million unique visitors per month and SFChronicle.com 31.3 million pageviews and 31.3 million unique visitors per month globally.


Praise, criticism, and features

The paper has received the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
on a number of occasions. Despite an illustrious and long history, the paper's news reportage is not as extensive as in the past. The current day ''Chronicle'' has followed the trend of other American newspapers, devoting increasing attention to local and regional news and cultural and entertainment criticism to the detriment of the paper's traditionally strong national and international reporting, though the paper does maintain a Washington, D.C., bureau. This increased focus on local news is a response to the competition from other Bay Area newspapers including the resurrected ''
San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...
'', the ''
Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, and a predecessor of the '' East Bay Times''. It was published by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' ...
'', the ''
East Bay Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa and Al ...
'' (formerly ''Contra Costa Times'') and the '' Mercury News''. Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada received the 2004 George Polk Award for Sports Reporting. Fainaru-Wada and Williams were recognized for their work on uncovering the BALCO scandal, which linked
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
star
Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants f ...
to performance-enhancing drugs. While the two above-named reporters broke the news, they are by no means the only sports writers of note at the ''Chronicle''. The ''Chronicle''s sports section is edited by Christina Kahrl and called ''Sporting Green'' as it is printed on green-tinted pages. The section's best-known writers are its columnists: Bruce Jenkins, Ann Killion, Scott Ostler, and Mike Silver. Its baseball coverage is anchored by Henry Schulman, John Shea, and Susan Slusser, the first female president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). The ''Chronicle's'' Sunday arts and entertainment insert section is called ''Datebook'', and has for decades been printed on pink-tinted paper in a tabloid format. Movie reviews (for many years written by nationally known critic Mick LaSalle) feature a unique rating system: instead of stars or a "thumbs up" system, the ''Chronicle'' has for decades used a small cartoon icon, sitting in a movie theater seat, known as the "Little Man", explained in 2008 by the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' film critic
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
: "...the only rating system that makes any sense is the Little Man of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', who is seen (1) jumping out of his seat and applauding wildly; (2) sitting up happily and applauding; (3) sitting attentively; (4) asleep in his seat; or (5) gone from his seat." Another area of note is the architecture column by John King; the ''Chronicle'' is still one of the few American papers to present a regular column on architectural issues. The paper also has regular weekly sections devoted to Food & Home and Style.


Challenges

Circulation has fallen sharply since the
dot-com boom The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Intern ...
peaked from around 1997 to 2001. The ''Chronicle''s daily readership dropped by 16.6% between 2004 and 2005 to 400,906; The ''Chronicle'' fired one-quarter of its newsroom staff in a cost-cutting move in May 2007. Newspaper executives pointed to growth of SFGate, the online website with 5.2 million unique visitors per month – fifth among U.S. newspaper websites in 2007. In February 2009, Hearst chief executive Frank A. Bennack Jr., and Hearst President Steven R. Swartz, announced that the ''Chronicle'' had lost money every year since 2001 and more than $50 million in 2008. Without major concessions from employees and other cuts, Hearst would put the papers up for sale and, if no buyer was found, shut the paper. San Francisco would have become the first major American city without a daily newspaper. The cuts were made. Despite – or perhaps because of – the threats, the loss of readers and advertisers accelerated. On October 26, 2009, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that the ''Chronicle'' had suffered a 25.8% drop in circulation for the six-month period ending in September 2009, to 251,782 subscribers, the largest percentage drop in circulation of any major newspaper in the United States. ''Chronicle'' publisher Frank Vega said the drop was expected as the paper moved to earn more from higher subscription fees from fewer readers. In May 2013, Vega retired and was replaced as publisher by former ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson. SFGate, the main digital portal for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', registered 19 million unique visitors in January 2015, making it the seventh-ranked newspaper website in the United States.


Publishers

* M. H. de Young, 1865–1925 * George T. Cameron, 1925–1955 * Charles de Young Thieriot, 1955–1977 * Richard Tobin Thieriot, 1977–1993 * John Sias, 1993–1999 (first publisher not to be a member of the de Young/Cameron/Thieriot family) * John Oppedahl, 2000–2003 * Steven Falk, 2003–2004 * Frank Vega, 2004–2013 * Jeffrey M. Johnson, 2013–2018 * Bill Nagel, 2018–present


See also

* List of San Francisco newspapers *'' San Francisco Chronicle Magazine'' *
Chronicle Publishing Company The Chronicle Publishing Company was a print and broadcast media corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California that was in operation from 1865 until 2000. Owned for the whole of its existence by the de Young family, CPC was most notable ...
*
Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco–based American publishing company that publishes books for both adults and children. History The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publish ...
* Chronicle Features *
KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's outlet for The CW. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV has studios ...


References


External links

*
SFGate: Online version of the newspaper
contains freely searchable archive of all articles since 1995

, contains instructions on searching archived papers 1865–1922

{{Authority control 1865 establishments in California De Young family George Polk Award recipients Hearst Communications publications Daily newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area Newspapers established in 1865 South of Market, San Francisco Weeks and Day buildings Newspapers published in California Newspapers published in San Francisco