San Francisco Chronicle | San Francisco Bay Guardian | SF Weekly
The abrupt closure of the San Francisco Bay Guardian was announced Tuesday, with the alt-weekly’s website, Facebook page and employee email shuttered the same day, Demian Bulwa and John Wildermuth wrote for The San Francisco Chronicle.
The paper, which The Chronicle notes was a “leading progressive voice in the city for 48 years,” will cease publication because of financial troubles, according to a statement from San Francisco Print Media Company Publisher Glenn Zuehls excerpted in SF Weekly.
Unfortunately, the economic reality is such that the Bay Guardian is not a viable business and has not been for many years,” wrote SFMC publisher Glenn Zuehls in the interoffice communique “When SFMC took over the publication, the company believed the publication’s finances could rise out of the red and benefit from joining forces with the Examiner and the Weekly. We have tried hard to make that happen over the past few years. … Since then, I have come to realize that this isn’t possible and that the obstacles for a profitable Bay Guardian are too great to overcome.
Jean Dibble and Bruce Brugman, a married couple who founded the Bay Guardian 48 years ago, sold the paper to San Francisco Media Company in 2012, according to SF Weekly.
The editor of the Bay Guardian, Steven Jones, says he’s discussing a possible purchase of the paper, according to SF Weekly. The paper will “turn to our community and try to see if this is possible,” he said.
The paper will publish its final issue tomorrow, according to its website.
On the eve of the paper’s closure, Bay Guardian staff writer Joe Fitz Rodriguez took to Twitter to remember watershed moments from its history:
Bay Guardian history #4: GAY AND PROUD 1974… Because we had #lgbt pride from the beginning @sfbg pic.twitter.com/e3WD5OPS2d
— Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) October 14, 2014
Bay Guardian history #2: the ultimate highrise @sfbg pic.twitter.com/bWxfc2xWrn
— Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) October 14, 2014
Packing boxes at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Pictured: Summer of Love reunion photo. @sfbg pic.twitter.com/flcOeGCTNk
— Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) October 14, 2014
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