Public Doesn't Like The New, Lousy SFGate; KPIX's Night Beat Is In Trouble; De La Cruz: Tainted Brand; KTVU's Villalon Steady As They Come; Ibanez To KGO Rumors Heat Up; Tuesday Quick Starter

 TUESDAY QUICK NOTES STARTER

*If the Chronicle isn't aware by now that their new-look SFGate website is lousy, then Hearst execs are dumber than I thought.

Seems not only can you not navigate the site but when you go there, your pc freezes.

Nice work, Hearst.

*Nobody won't come out and say it and it's only been on for barely three months, but KPIX's experiment at 10 PM, the dreadful, "Night Beat" is in trouble. My insiders at 855 Battery tell me word is that already there's grumbling that the show needs a "major overhaul--maybe a re-tinkering." Yeah, TRENDING!, the grand experiment is an utter failure. No shit, Sherlock. GAME OFF!

*Veronica De La Cruz: Tainted brand. Your "performance" on Monday night was beyond embarrassing. The fake banter with sports boy, Dennis O'Donnell, looked like a Bakersfield talent show.

*Birds of a feather: O'Donnell and Vern Glenn: KRONvicts during the Dan Rosenheim ND era --both of whom worked with Radnich. So, now...you know.

*Speaking of KRON, moving date to the ABC 900 Front building: just before Thanksgiving. Parking passes included.

*The rumors intensify: KTVU's Sports guru, Mark Ibanez will go over to Channel 7 in March when his contract is up. Ibanez won't talk about it but the uncertainty over at 2 combined with impending cuts may have a lot to do with it.

*What's on the horizon at KTVU and FOX, (about to commence an economic-cleansing ), is probably due to hit almost all the other players in the market. KGO is owned by Disney and the mouse company is said to be mulling cuts at its O and O's, ditto CBS at PIX and NBC/Universal at KNTV.

*Debra Villalon at KTVU: Vastly underrated. 33 years in the biz. Bay Area-bred. Damn good street reporter. I like her.

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SFGate Again Unveils New Appearance Which Looks Crappy And Is A Pain In The Ass To Navigate; Thursday First Take

 Once again...and again...and again...SFGate has rolled out their new on-line website and once again, and again, navigating it and its assorted pages is tantamount to a hike up Mount Tam in your skivvies --who the hell is in charge over there? Are any of the Hearst executives aware the new format looks like shit and takes forever to finally get to your desired destination?

I give up.

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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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SFGate, Mercury News Suffering in Time Spent Per User

Jason Turbow from BayNewser.com has a complete and comprehensive breakdown on the Nielsen Online most popular news sites...It has released its latest numbers, showing how much time people spend per month at top-30 newspaper sites.

The Chronicle's SFGate.com, however, managed only seven minutes, one second per user. That's down from more than 16 minutes in August '08.

Only four papers in Nielsen's top-30 ranked lower. One of them, the San Jose Mercury News, came in dead last -- by a longshot -- with only four minutes, 42 seconds per user (which is actually up by two seconds from a year ago). This tells us either that the Star Tribune's Web site is more than four times better than that of the Mercury News, or that people in Silicon Valley have more than four times as many things to do other than read online newspapers as their counterparts in Minnesota.

Nielsen's Top 30
Site -- Aug. '09 (hour:minute:second) -- Aug. '08

NYTimes.com -- 0:13:58 -- 0:29:48
washingtonpost.com -- 0:10:22 -- 0:10:49
Wall Street Journal Online -- 0:14:01 -- 0:13:57
USATODAY.com -- 0:13:32 -- 0:16:20
LA Times -- 0:09:28 -- 0:06:48

Daily News Online Edition -- 0:07:11 -- 0:05:16
Boston.com -- 0:17:26 -- 0:09:09
New York Post -- 0:09:47 -- 0:14:50
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 0:07:01 -- 0:16:37
Chicago Tribune -- 0:11:52 -- 0:07:33

Politico -- 0:07:27 -- 0:10:29
NJ.com -- 0:10:26 -- 0:07:51
The Houston Chronicle -- 0:11:27 -- 0:31:11
Chicago Sun-Times -- 0:08:31 -- 0:08:22
MercuryNews.com -- 0:04:42 -- 0:04:40

Newsday -- 0:08:32 -- 0:04:48
MiamiHerald.com -- 0:10:02 -- 0:03:29
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 0:17:31 -- 0:14:08
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 0:10:34 -- 0:04:04
Philly.com -- 0:08:16 -- 0:03:02

Orlando Sentinel -- 0:07:33 -- 0:07:59
Detroit Free Press -- 0:13:35 -- 0:13:33
The Washington Times -- 0:07:05 -- 0:03:05
tampabay.com -- 0:06:47 -- 0:09:08
Star Tribune -- 0:20:47 -- 0:24:47

DenverPost.com -- 0:06:49 -- 0:04:21
The News & Observer -- 0:06:57 -- 0:08:37
Azcentral.com -- 0:15:24 -- 0:12:40
Seattle Times -- 0:15:07 -- 0:07:26
Sun-Sentinel -- 0:09:40 -- 0:06:25