Christian Frederick "Chris" Gulker (March 10, 1951 – October 27, 2010)
was an American photographer,
programmer, writer, and pioneer in
electronic publishing.
A "
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
pioneer,"
Gulker was "instrumental in introducing the digital publishing era to the newspaper industry"
and was a central figure in the early history of blogging.
Early years
Born in New York City, Gulker grew up on the shores of Lake Erie near
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...
.
He was a 1969 graduate of
Western Reserve Academy
, motto_translation = Light and Truth
, address = 115 College Street
, city = Hudson
, state = Ohio
, zipcode = 44236-2999
, country = United ...
of
Hudson, Ohio
Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,110 at the 2020 census. It is a suburban community in the Akron metropolitan statistical area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, t ...
, and an alumnus of
Occidental College, Los Angeles, where he earned a degree in
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
. He worked as a dishwasher, cab driver, tow truck operator and barman
[ before he was hired in 1978 as a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, where the photography department came to view him as "one of its brightest stars." He also worked as a freelancer, and has been published in '']Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'', '' Vanity Fair'', ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', '' Glamour'' and ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Gulker contributed to the National Press Photographers Association
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is an American professional association made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field. Founded in 1946, the organization is based in at ...
's Electronic Photojournalism Workshop.
San Francisco Examiner
Gulker moved to Menlo Park, CA, after the ''Herald-Examiner'' closed in 1989, and joined the '' San Francisco Examiner'', where he initially served as picture editor and led the photography staff's transition from film to digital cameras. His work made possible an all-Macintosh-produced edition of The Examiner after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake led to a power shutdown that idled the newspaper's publishing system.
Turning the Examiner into a "digital laboratory," he converted the newspaper from black and white to color by implementing a production system of his own design that used Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
es to do color separations and made The Examiner the first major American daily to switch to full-color production using desktop technology, with the first colored front page printed in January 1990. Gulker's "'hacked-together' color calibration system allowed the Examiner to incorporate color for less than it cost other papers," making him "a leader in developing in-house capabilities to use color electronic images daily on deadline."
Gulker's work, which redefined "the state of the art in editorial production methods among print-on-paper media," was driven by necessity. The Examiner, having recently switched from on-site letterpress equipment to a new flexographic press, wanted to use the new printing plant's color capability. However, under the joint operating agreement between the Examiner and its local rival, the San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
, any changes to the production facility, such as introducing color, would have required the consent of both parties to the agreement, and the Chronicle wasn't interested. To produce color for the new press, the Examiner therefore had to handle it in the newsroom.
Gulker became director of development in November 1992.
In 1994, Gulker's editorial workflow system, dubbed the "virtual newsroom", was demonstrated at both Seybold shows and supported the creation of "a real Internet newspaper that used the 'Net throughout the process from story and photo solicitation to delivery." The system provided the publishing infrastructure for The Gate, the online newspaper jointly operated by the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
, which made its precipitous debut on November 3, 1994 and came to be officially launched on April 5, 1995.
Electric Examiner and the strike of 1994
In 1994, as "a staff of one" and encouraged by the owner of ''The Examiner'', William Randolph Hearst III
William Randolph Hearst III (born June 18, 1949) is an American heir, businessman, and philanthropist.
Biography
Early life
William Randolph Hearst III was born on June 18, 1949. His father was William Randolph Hearst Jr., and his paternal gra ...
, Gulker came to run a pilot project called ''The Electric Examiner'', which routed wire-service stories to the Web. Gulker wanted to expand this "prototype of a future Web site" to distributing the actual reporting produced at the ''Examiner'' but was frustrated in this ambition, as the ''Examiner'' was bound by a joint operating agreement with its local rival, the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'', and could not move on its own when it came to venturing into new distribution modes. When Gulker's project was previewed in August 1994 under the name ''The Gate'' as a joint operation between the two newspapers, it was judged the "furthest ahead" among efforts to bring newspapers online.
The ''Electric Examiner'' became a focus of attention in the first two weeks of November 1994, when San Francisco's two major newspapers were hit by 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 ...
in which some 2,600 journalists, editors, lorry drivers, press operators and paper handlers walked off their jobs. Gulker did not join them. He sided with management and set to work launching The Gate ahead of its scheduled debut in late November by modifying his system so that the ''Electric Examiner'' would now appear daily on The Gate. For the duration of the strike, Gulker's operation, which remained "heavily dependent on wire-service stories" for lack of contributing journalists and editors, was the official online version of San Francisco's two largest newspapers. On one day during the strike, according to Gulker, "the ''Examiner'' delivered 80,000 print editions, while its Web site recorded 93,038 accesses." Gulker was aware of the shortcomings of his project but hoped it would blaze a trail for online journalism after the strike, "when the full resources of the paper are available again."
Within two days, the striking journalists set up their own online newspaper, the ''San Francisco Free Press'', and competed with ''The Gate'' as "the soul of the Examiner and the Chronicle." Led by the ''Examiners associate editor Bruce Koon and former ''SF Weekly'' editor Marcelo Rodriguez, they operated from a makeshift newsroom using their own hardware and a local ISP for rented server space. The strike lasted 11 days and its competition between two online newspapers has been hailed as "a milestone for online news."
Apple
Gulker left The Examiner a few months after the strike and, reputed as an "Internet publishing guru," accepted an executive position at Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
to "promote the Mac as the ideal publishing platform for the Internet." At Apple, Gulker first came to manage a new group called Publishing and Media Markets, then oversaw strategic relations for the company's Design and Publishing Markets group, and as "Apple's design and publishing guru" made frequent appearances as a speaker and panelist at publishing-oriented conferences. As Apple's publishing business development manager he advocated the use of intranets for prepress Prepress is the term used in the Printing and Publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress process includes the preparation of artwork for press, media ...
productivity gains.
Blogging pioneer and columnist
Gulker's personal site Gulker.com has been online since early 1995. The "news page" on Gulker.com, which launched in May 1997, was modeled after Dave Winer
Dave Winer (born May 2, 1955, in Queens, New York City) is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and writer who resides in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web servi ...
's Scripting News and ran on Winer's Frontier publishing software. Gulker, anticipating the work of Jorn Barger
Jorn Barger (; born 1953) is an American blogger, best known as editor of ''Robot Wisdom'', an influential early weblog. Barger coined the term ''weblog'' to describe the process of "logging the web" as he surfed. He has also written extensively ...
, was the first to propose a network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
of bloggers and pioneered two of the most effective means through which blogging emerged as a social medium, the blogroll and link attribution.
From 1997 until 2003, Gulker contributed his column "The View from Silicon Valley" to the weekly technology supplement of the British newspaper The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
, in which he distinguished himself through "sharp wit and literary ability".
Startup advisor, Adobe Systems
Leaving Apple in 1999, Gulker became founder, senior manager or advisor to several startups. In September 1999, he joined the web development company Montclare Technologies as VP of marketing, and in 2001 he became marketing vice president of RealTimeImage, a company specializing in high resolution streaming imaging.
From 2004 to 2007, Gulker was product manager for the Acrobat
Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro d ...
family at Adobe Systems.
Cancer patient
Gulker was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant glioma
A glioma is a type of tumor that starts in the glial cells of the brain or the spine. Gliomas comprise about 30 percent of all brain tumors and central nervous system tumours, and 80 percent of all malignant brain tumours.
Signs and symptoms
...
brain tumor in October 2006. In his final years, despite his advancing paralysis, he traveled to France, took a tour of the American South, visited friends and shared his experiences as a cancer patient via his blog. Deciding against "heroic end-of-life measures" he opted for palliative care rather than continued treatment.
In July 2010, his oncologist
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...
informed him that he had only a few months to live. Gulker died peacefully at his home on October 27, 2010, aged 59. He was survived by his wife of 29 years, Linda Hubbard Gulker.
References
External links
Gulker's blog
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulker, Chris
1951 births
2010 deaths
American male bloggers
American bloggers
American photojournalists
American technology writers
American columnists
Apple Inc. executives
Occidental College alumni
San Francisco Examiner people
Deaths from cancer in California
Neurological disease deaths in California
Deaths from brain cancer in the United States
Writers from Erie, Pennsylvania
People from Menlo Park, California
Writers from New York City
American company founders
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Western Reserve Academy alumni
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers