The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free
alternative newspaper
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting l ...
published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by
Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble.
The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaunched in February 2016 as an online publication.
The ''Bay Guardian'' was known for reporting, celebrating, and promoting left-wing and
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
issues within San Francisco and (albeit rarely) around the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
as a whole. This usually included
muckraking
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...
, legislation to control and limit
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
, and endorsement of political candidates and other laws and policies that fall within its political views. It also printed movie and music reviews, an annual nude beaches issue, and an annual sex issue. The ''Bay Guardian'' was one of several alternative newspapers in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, including ''
SF Weekly
''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
'' (formerly its major competitor, now under the same ownership), ''
East Bay Express
The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday.
The ''E ...
'', ''
Metro Silicon Valley
''Metro'' is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as ''Metro Silicon Valley'', as well as ''Metroactive'' online, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print ...
'', ''
North Bay Bohemian
The ''North Bay Bohemian'' is a weekly newspaper published in the North Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States. The newspaper is distributed in Sonoma and Napa counties.
The newspaper began publication in 197 ...
'', Marin's ''
Pacific Sun'', and ''
Berkeley Daily Planet
The ''Berkeley Daily Planet'' was a free weekly newspaper published in Berkeley, California, which continues today as an internet-based news publication.
The ''Daily Planet'' is politically progressive, and offers endorsements of progressive a ...
''.
Best of the Bay
Starting in 1974, the ''Bay Guardian'' published an annual "Best of The Bay" issue that listed the best restaurants, business, and activities in the Bay Area, based on a readers' poll and staff recommendations. The ''Bay Guardian'' claimed that its "Best Of" issue was the first annual guide of its kind and was copied by other publications.
Goldie Award
The ''Bay Guardian'' handed out "Goldie Awards" annually for excellence in the arts and similar areas.
Publications
In 1971, it published ''The Ultimate Highrise'', on the costs of development to the city. In 1975, it published ''San Francisco Free & Easy: The Native's Guidebook'' with a revised edition in 1980, edited by
William Ristow
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...
.
1970s unionization attempt
The ''Bay Guardian'' put down an attempt by its employees to unionize in the 1970s. In 1975, ''Bay Guardian'' staffers, with the aid of Newspaper Guild Local 52 and International Typographical Union Local 21, signed union cards to seek higher wages and benefits. The paper had previously won a legal settlement and moved to a new building. Nevertheless, publisher Bruce Brugmann claimed there were not enough funds to increase pay or benefits. The day after Thanksgiving, he fired five senior staffers who had helped organize the union effort. Newspaper staffers voted to join the Newspaper Guild and, on June 15, 1976, they called a
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
to force Brugmann to offer a labor contract. Brugmann retained a few management staff and hired
strikebreaker
A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...
replacements. In August,
César Chávez
Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged ...
offered to mediate the strike, but Brugmann refused. Finally, in 1977, another election was called, but this time votes by replacement workers carried the day and the new staff voted not to join a union.
Lawsuit against ''SF Weekly''
In March 2008, the ''Bay Guardian'' won a
predatory pricing
Predatory pricing is a Pricing strategies, pricing strategy, using the method of undercutting on a larger scale, where a Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union#Dominance, dominant firm in an industry will deliberately ...
lawsuit against its local rival, ''
SF Weekly
''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
'', based on allegations that ''SF Weekly'' undercut the ''Bay Guardian'' by selling display advertisements below cost while supporting itself on cash infusions from its parent,
Village Voice Media
Village Voice Media or VVM is a newspaper company. It began in 1970 as a weekly alternative newspaper in Phoenix. The company, founded by Michael Lacey (editor) and Jim Larkin (publisher), was then known as New Times Inc. (NTI) and the publicati ...
, in an effort to force the ''Bay Guardian'' into bankruptcy. In May 2008 the judge in the case awarded
punitive damages
Punitive damages, or exemplary damages, are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. ...
, raising the jury's $6.3 million award to $15.9 million, and issuing an
injunction
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
prohibiting the ''SF Weekly'' from selling advertisements below cost.
Sale and recent developments
On April 19, 2012, the ''East Bay Express'' reported that the Canadian owners of ''The San Francisco Examiner'' were in negotiations with the ''Bay Guardian'' to buy the newspaper. These rumors were initially denied by its executive editor Tim Redmond, but the sale went through a week later.
On January 15, 2013, their longstanding rival ''SF Weekly'' was sold to the San Francisco Newspaper Group, which publishes the ''Bay Guardian''.
In mid-June 2013, ''San Francisco Business Times'' and other publications reported that Tim Redmond had "been ousted" as publisher and editor. The ''Bay Guardian'' issued a statement quoting new publisher Stephen Buel as saying, "The ''Guardian'' has been losing money, and we were forced to contemplate some editorial layoffs. Tim decided to resign rather than follow through with what we were discussing." However, Redmond denied resigning.
On October 14, 2014, publisher Glenn Zuehls announced that the San Francisco Media Co., which also owns ''SF Weekly'', had decided to close the publication. The 40th annual Best of the Bay issue, published on the same day, was the weekly publication's final issue.
Following the ''Bay Guardian''s closure, its laid-off staff launched the ''Bay Guardian''-in-Exile Project, which included a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo that raised more than $25,000 to help preserve the paper's archives and produce a final commemorative edition of the ''Bay Guardian'', which was released on Jan. 22, 2015 and distributed in conjunction with the San Francisco Public Press and Gum Road.
In October 2015, the Bay Guardian's print and digital archives were handed over to the San Francisco Center for Newspaper Preservation, a newly founded nonprofit organization led by Marke Bieschke (the paper's former publisher) and Tim Redmond.
In January 2016, they announced that a "Bring Back the Bay Guardian" crowdfunding campaign and other donations had yielded enough funds to secure the archives and relaunch several ''Bay Guardian'' features, included "Best of the Bay".
Redmond continues to run 48 Hills with Bieschke, a separate site focusing on San Francisco politics that Redmond founded in 2014 after leaving the ''Bay Guardian''.
See also
{{Portal bar, San Francisco Bay Area
References
External links
Official website
1966 establishments in California
Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States
Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area
Publications established in 1966
2014 disestablishments in California
Publications disestablished in 2014
2014 in San Francisco
Online newspapers with defunct print editions
1966 in San Francisco
Weekly newspapers published in California