San Francisco Chronicle

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 11:44pm on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

The Current TV journalists jailed in North Korea attacked stories fearlessly, Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote on June 12, 2009:

"While taking a break from reporting a story on the Mexican drug wars earlier this year, Current TV journalist Laura Ling was asked by a group of Mexican university students what the riskiest part of her job was. "To tell you the truth," Ling replied, "I was pretty nervous coming to Juarez."

As the class tittered, Ling said - on camera- that she felt silly. Then she asked the students how many of them were affected by the drug wars. All hands went up.

Days after Ling, 32, and fellow Current TV staffer Euna Lee, 36, were sentenced to a dozen years in a North Korean labor camp after being convicted of illegally entering that country, those who have worked with the two journalists say the exchange in Mexico is typical of how Ling approached a story. She is unassuming, inquisitive and fearless."

The full story:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/11/MN9I185KC6.DTL

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:44am on Monday, April 27th, 2009

Phil Bronstein, editor at large at the San Francisco Chronicle, damns the newspaper business with faint hope when he says:

"For people who still love print, who like to hold it, feel it, rustle it, tear stuff out, do their I. F. Stone thing, it’s important to remember that people are living longer. That’s the most hopeful thing you can say about print journalism, that old people are living longer."

He was quoted by the Maureen Dowd in the article "Slouching Towards Oblivion," published in the New York Times on April 25, 2009.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 9:48pm on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

February 24, 2009: Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees. If these savings cannot be accomplished within weeks, Hearst said, the Company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper.

Hearst said that the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and that this year’s losses to date are worse. The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001.

“Because of the sea change newspapers everywhere are undergoing and these dire economic times, it is essential that our management and the local union leadership work together to implement the changes necessary to bring the cost of producing the Chronicle into line with available revenue,” said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman and chief executive officer, Hearst Corporation, and Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers. They added, “Given the losses the Chronicle continues to sustain, the time to implement these changes cannot be long. These changes are designed to give the Chronicle the best possible chance to survive and continue to serve the people of the Bay Area with distinction, as it has since 1865. Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve. But without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be found, to shut the newspaper down.”