An Open Letter To Audrey Cooper, The New EIC Of The SF Chronicle

 Dear Audrey Cooper:

You're the new Editor-in-Chief of the SF Chronicle and you've been all over the place talking about a missive to make the Chron, its website, SFGate and all other platforms more entertaining, more compelling, more profitable. Makes sense, but there's more serious issues here.

I have a plan that should be at the top of your to-do list.

FIX!, immediately, the Gate. I mean, seriously, it is a royal pain in the tuchas to navigate.

And that's the easy part.

Look, I love getting Bay Area news, Ms. Cooper but I can't access the new site. It's like pulling hairs. I've had an easier time getting through Russian crossword puzzles with 12-letter words with no vowels. A Rubik's cube is easier to navigate --why the heck is SF Gate so damn horrid? In the old days, you clicked on links and you were able to read the story--now that chore is tantamount to climbing Mt. Tam with flip flops. Every time I try to go there, my computer freezes. It's relentless. I gave up. I can't subject myself to the torture and that really sucks because, Ms. Cooper, I really like the Chronicle. Hell, I even buy the print edition! That's loyalty.

So, please, give me and others the news and information we seek. Right now, you have an immense clusterphuck on your plate and you need to take care of business. Like now. Yesterday. I'm not alone. A lot of your partners are just as frustrated as I am. Now please, go do your thing.

Thanks in advance.

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Rich Lieberman

415 Media

New SF Gate is still a Massive Pain in the Ass To Navigate

Massive tech glitches still plague the Chronicle's new-look website, SFGate.com, which continues to mystify the Hearst, (corporate owner), big suits who've invested millions in the re-brand and are reportedly steamed over its persistent problems.

To wit:

Visiting the site can be a harrowing experience; once there, some operating systems, (like mine), immediately freeze. On some computers, it takes over five minutes for SF Gate to load and be workable. What was once an easy, albeit archaic method to sign on now is fraught with tech issues like the simple act of navigating stories. That process has now become an adventure and requires loads of patience. The Bay Area Gate consumers seem pretty irritated too.

This is embarrassing for Hearst which is trying desperately to make The Gate profitable and a means to go after the all-encompassing digital advertising. This humongous technical cluster blank is certainly not helping matters.

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Sign Of The (Printed) Times

SF Chronicle Introduces a New, Sharper-Looking SF Gate Website

 The Chronicle rolled out a new, cleaner, sharper SFGate-- its web portal, and it looks pretty good from this observer.

The new look, which debuted early Saturday morning has new graphics, a bolder type face and a considerably better-looking, more modernized layout with a lot more color too.

SF Gate was due for an overhaul and it appears, early on, the Hearst people, (who own the Chronicle), got it right.

The Gate is among the top-10 most-visited newspaper web sites in the country--the real question, and this is the 64 million dollar question among most on-line and off-line newspapers--can SF Gate eventually turn a profit?

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Chronicle Fires Longtime Sportswriter, John Crumpacker; Financial Issues at Fifth and Mission

 The Chronicle is having many issues we're told, once again, with some longtime staffers, mainly reporters, feeling the effects of continued financial problems facing the Hearst-owned SF daily.


To say there's a lot of angst in the newsroom would be an understatement.


One significant transaction has a whole lot of rank and file both fuming and worrying en masse.


John Crumpacker, a sports reporter who covered Cal football and basketball was fired last week, that's fired, like with cause, only a source close to Crumpacker, who'd been at the paper for 37 years, told me the real reason he was 86ed with cause was because by doing so the Chronicle wouldn't have to pay him a normal severance package, you know, like money?


The Crumpacker imbroglio has been met with reverberations around the entire newsroom; the feeling being, if they do that to him what might they do with me?


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The Future of the San Francisco Chronicle; Up in the Air? Friday Opener

 I was talking to a columnist in town not so long ago and he predicted, matter of fact, that the Bay Area would become a one-newspaper town. He didn't say what paper but from all indications it would not be the SF Chronicle. (He didn't work for the Chron).


Which got me to thinking: What about the future of the paper? Without the vast financial pockets of the Hearst Corporation, (which owns the paper), would the Chronicle even be around now? Probably not and this isn't a sudden phenomenon in the newspaper business. Most newspapers are dying and the only ones that are surviving are behemoths like the Wall Street Journal and only marginally, the NY Times. And both of those survive mostly from their pay wall web sites, which are one of the few that are profitable.


The Chronicle and more specifically, SF Gate. com (its website), has tried the pay wall route in various forms but it never worked. The Gate is immensely popular, (even with the largely soft news and  image-friendly real estate porn), but according to most industry people, has never turned a profit. Matter of fact I heard the Chronicle loses several millions of dollars a year.


As a consumer of news myself I buy the paper. I still like the feel of actual newsprint but I also read SF Gate too. I couldn't imagine San Francisco without the Chronicle but then again if it continues to lose the millions it reportedly does, how can Hearst keep it going? There has to come a point.


Do you all still read newspapers or is it Internet only? Or like me, both. I'm interested in your response.


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Tips/E-Mail: Rich.Lieberman@Gmail.com 


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SF Chronicle's Jon Carroll Writes his 57,546th Column on Cats

 If in doubt, write a column about your cat. Jon Carroll of the Chronicle is fond of this practice, like this, for example.


Or, to be more timely, today's feline entry.


Meow.


Not again! Yes.


And again. We're beginning to see a pattern here.


I have nothing against cats. They're cool. Any animal that shows true independence is a friend of mine.


I just wish Carroll broadened his repertoire. Meow. Even Morris would be appreciative.


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'Hey, Woodstein!'

The Washington Post was sold last week; to Jeff Bezos, (he's the CEO of Amazon), from the Graham family, one of the very last family-run newspapers in America.

The Post of course broke Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein. Way back in 1972.

One of my lasting memories of the 70's is "All The President's Men." I was a political junkie and the movie was just perfect. Always loved Robert Redford and he just flat out nailed Bob Woodward. Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein was brilliant. And Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee was too good to be true.

Newspapers are a dying breed. That's unfortunate. Then again, from all in the know, Jeff Bezos wants to maintain the integrity of the Post and its still great legacy status not just in Washington, but beyond. I hope that's the case.

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The State of the SF Chronicle; Still Losing Wads of Money; Newspapers in the News; WashPost Latest Sold

Newspapers, unfortunately, continue to be a dying breed. Did you see what the NY Times sold the Boston Globe for? To think the Times paid a little over a billion dollars for the paper just two decades ago is indicative of the state of the industry.

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, just paid $250M, (in cash), for the heralded Washington Post.

It's no secret here in the Bay Area that the Chronicle has been losing money for many years. Lots of money, like a million dollars a week at one point. It helps that the Chronicle is owned by a mega-media company like Hearst Corp. but at what point does the endless amount of red ink cause surrender?

The Chronicle installed a paywall recently; it has no doubt raised much-need revenue for the newspaper, but its website, SFGate, (the free portion), still gets the bulk of usage and is in the Top 10 of most-frequently viewed newspaper web sites in the country. Even with its digital traction and newfound Internet subscribers, the Chronicle still loses wads of money.

Even with all its murky financial status, I have never heard that Hearst is actively trying to sell the Chron. For one, Hearst knows the paper and its website still command considerable cultural weight in the Bay Area. They also know that although the San Jose Mercury News and its sister publications recently freshened up its online content, the Merc, deep in the heart of Silicon Valley, still doesn't have the cachet of Hearst's Chronicle.

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Rancor at the SF Chronicle; Staffers fume over more Wage/Health Care Cuts; Take to Facebook to air Outrage

There is upheaval at the SF Chronicle.

A day after the newspaper announced it has begun a paywall, members of the rank and file took to Facebook to express deep displeasure and frustration over Hearst Corp., (the owner of the paper), and its treatment of the work force over more proposed wage cuts and increased health-care premiums.

Here's a statement from staffers:


"Hearst is insisting that we shoulder huge increases for an inferior health plan. Even offset by a meager proposed raise, this accounts to a pay cut of hundreds or thousands of dollars a years for most of us.

We love the Chronicle, and we love journalism, but we can't keep donating our own livelihoods to increase the profits of our corporate owners."

A columnist, who requested anonymity, told me that morale at the daily is poor and that a good deal of reporters and columnists are further outraged that management's proposed takebacks coincide with the announcement of the paywall.

"It's just very demoralizing and toxic around here,"said the columnist. Reporters posted a petition on the Facebook page asking the public for support.

A call into Hearst Corp. for comment was not immediately answered.

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