Chron Needs Game Plan (3/09)

By Soraya Okuda

Mar. 23, 2009

On Feb. 24, the Hearst Corporation announced plans to possibly sell or close the San Francisco Chronicle within weeks if little profit is made. According to a Feb. 25 Chronicle article, the newspaper “lost more than $50 million in 2008 and is on a pace to lose more than that this year,” in addition to having “major losses each year since 2001.” If the Chronicle is closed, readers can expect a great loss — not only one of the nation’s historical newspapers, but also the in-depth news that the printed press fights for. On Feb. 24, the Hearst Corporation announced plans to possibly sell or close the San Francisco Chronicle within weeks if little profit is made. According to a Feb. 25 Chronicle article, the newspaper “lost more than $50 million in 2008 and is on a pace to lose more than that this year,” in addition to having “major losses each year since 2001.” If the Chronicle is closed, readers can expect a great loss — not only one of the nation’s historical newspapers, but also the in-depth news that the printed press fights for.
Now that the print business is sinking, the Chronicle, which represents the eclectic culture of the city, needs to stay afloat, even if that means abandoning their traditional methods.
Though the Chronicle is the Bay Area’s largest newspaper and has approximately 1.6 million weekly readers and a news staff of approximately 275 people, according to the article, it is another victim of the poor economy and growing losses from the credit crunch, as well as the desertion of classified advertising to Craigslist and other online sites. As a result, “the Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees.”
The reading audience has shifted: While fewer youth are opening up newspapers, websites such as Youtube, as well as email websites like Yahoo! and AOL, are being turned to for free daily headlines. From the local press such as The Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury Times, to larger newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the majority of newspapers have felt the squeeze of the tightening wallets of their readers and the lure of the interactive technology of web news.
While some papers are accepting their fates, other publications, such as Newsweek, are adapting to the declining sales by restructuring their entire magazine. According to a Feb. 8 New York Times article, Newsweek will have “a new design, a much smaller, and it hopes, more affluent readership, and some shifts in content.”
While it is yet to be seen whether Newsweek’s structural changes will aid their survival as a publication, it could affect the quality of their magazine as a news source. With these changes, less emphasis will be placed on mainstream news articles — ironically, Newsweek will no longer report on major weekly news. “If we don’t have something original to say, we won’t. The drill of chasing the week’s news to add a couple of hard-fought new details is not sustainable,” Newsweek’s editor, Jon Meacham, said in the New York Times.
Perhaps the Chronicle should follow Newsweek’s lead by adapting to the changes demanded by a shrinking reading audience. As chairman and publisher of the Chronicle Frank J. Vega pointed out in the article, the Chronicle cannot fully support even its distribution as the expense of delivering and producing the newspaper “to a seven-day subscriber is more than double the $7.75 weekly cost to subscribe.” The newspaper should narrow its targeted readership, possibly limiting distribution to the Bay Area. If the Chronicle created its own specific audience like Newsweek, it could have a higher chance of sustainability. The Chronicle could take the path of moving their readership focus from an older generation to the tech-savvy 30-somethings and under by choosing stories angled toward youth, though in doing so, they could lose the older generation of readers in the process. In addition, since the Chronicle’s website (www.sfgate.com), is particularly popular among students for researching current events and entertainment, the newspaper should consider rewiring its format to further accommodate online news while giving multiple platforms for its journalists to enhance the print paper. If the paper is able to keep up, the Bay Area will not be deprived of a news source that focuses so deeply on our local events — change can be a survival tool.