AAN News
Redmond Defends SFBG Advertising Policynew
The Bay Guardian ran an ad for Coors Light earlier this month and faced the wrath of local progressives, who have boycotted the company since 1974 due to its anti-union and anti-gay policies. "I wish they would not carry (the ad)," a representative of a local labor group tells the Bay Area Reporter. "I think they are mistaken to do so." Executive editor Tim Redmond tells the Reporter that the Bay Guardian will run any ad that's "not libelous, obscene, or consumer fraud" -- with the exception of cigarette advertising, which it no longer accepts**. "If every ad met my political correctness test, there would be no ads in the paper and I would be out of a job," Redmond says. **UPDATE: Redmond says the Bay Area Reporter got one detail wrong; the Guardian still takes cigarette ads. And he says we missed his most important quote: "I drink only Bud Light."
The Bay Area Reporter (Second item) |
05-30-2007 8:37 am |
Industry News
San Francisco Bay Guardian's Ad Director Heads Across the Baynew
In the wake of Village Voice Media's sale of the East Bay Express, the Bay Guardian reports that Jody Colley is leaving to join the newly independent paper as its publisher. Colley previously worked in ad sales at Pitch Weekly when that Kansas City paper was owned by Hal Brody, one of the principal investors in the new Express.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
05-21-2007 12:52 pm |
Industry News
Whistleblower Who Talked to San Francisco Bay Guardian Axednew
Alcatraz Island tour guide Dan Cooke has been fired by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (GGNPC) in the wake of the alt-weekly's article that quoted him complaining about a sewage spill, the Guardian reports. Cooke has filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Labor against the GGNPC and the National Park Service, claiming he should be protected as a whistleblower. Members of the state assembly are also investigating the firing, according to the Guardian.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
03-21-2007 11:11 am |
Industry News
Trial Date in SFBG Lawsuit Against VVM Pushed Backnew
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
03-14-2007 9:24 am |
Industry News
Bay Guardian and Civil Rights Groups Seek Records on Immigration Raidsnew
The San Francisco alt-weekly joined the ACLU and the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in filing a Freedom of Information Act request for government records on the arrests of more than 800 illegal immigrants in Northern California, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The groups are trying to corroborate "abusive practices reported extensively in the press" including illegal searches and abusive treatment, according to an ACLU press release. "If the federal government is going to spend taxpayers' dollars on a very questionable enforcement action, the public has the right to know the details of how it was implemented," says Bay Guardian Editor Tim Redmond.
San Jose Mercury News |
03-07-2007 9:05 am |
Industry News
Village Voice Media Taps New Law Firm in Bay Guardian Suitnew
The parent company of SF Weekly and East Bay Express hired local litigation specialists Kerr & Wagstaffe to replace Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffein in the predatory-pricing lawsuit brought against those two papers by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Kerr & Wagstaffe is the third firm involved in the defense of the lawsuit, set to go to trial in mid-July, reports Legal Pad, a blog focusing on California law.
Legal Pad |
02-21-2007 1:04 pm |
Industry News
AP Waves White Flag, Issues Hearst-MediaNews 'Clarification'new
After taking a pounding for a good week from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the mainstream-media syndication service finally admitted yesterday that its earlier story, about a judge's ruling on the SFBG-Media Alliance motion seeking access to documents in the Hearst-MediaNews antitrust suit, left out some important details. "The story should have noted that Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. and The Hearst Corp ... had earlier voluntarily released some records that had been filed under seal," AP now says. Most importantly, SFBG, AP, and Bay Area papers owned by Hearst and MediaNews report that those records, and other documents unsealed by the judge in response to SFBG's motion, demonstrate the two companies have had a cozy relationship for decades, even before they consummated the
complex deal that led to the antitrust suit.
Associated Press via San Jose Mercury News |
02-02-2007 11:35 am |
Industry News
Bay Guardian San Francisco's "Most Politically Influential Publication"new
So claims H. Brown, announcing his 6th Annual Bulldog Awards on the Web site of the Fog City Journal, which calls itself "an online news organization" focusing on Bay Area news. "More balding hippies carry (the Bay Guardian's) Election Day crib sheet into polls than any other rag," explains Brown, who gives his own publication the nod at number two. Brown also says SF Weekly columnist Matt Smith is the city's third-best political writer, even though he's "lost a step" and "(s)eems nuts at times." Smith is brilliant, says Brown: "He can see yesterday, today and tomorrow as one multi-valved heart fed by money, greed and bigotry."
Fog City Journal |
01-29-2007 3:32 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Bay Guardian: Newspapers Blow Story on MediaNews/Hearst Rulingnew
"The Bay Guardian and Media Alliance have succeeded in getting about 90 percent of the previously secret records in the (MediaNews/Hearst antitrust) case opened to public review," says editor Tim Redmond (pictured). "But you wouldn’t know that from reading the news stories in the monopoly dailies that the suit challenges." The San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press both botched the story, claims Redmond, because they ignored the fact that, among other things, the newspaper chains immediately agreed to surrender most of their secret documents when the Bay Guardian and its non-profit partner filed a motion to unseal the records in the case. The Associated Press reporter admitted his mistake, Redmond says: “I plead guilty to leaving out the background,” David Kravets told Redmond, who says the inaccuracies are emblematic of the "monopoly media world of the Bay Area, 2007."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
01-26-2007 3:34 pm |
Industry News
Beauty of Federal Court Ruling in the Eye of the Beholder
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston yesterday ruled on a motion filed last month by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the non-profit Media Alliance. The plaintiffs asked the court to unseal documents in an antitrust lawsuit seeking to overturn a Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc. "Victory!" proclaims the Bay Guardian, which reports Illston ruled that "many of the documents" will be made public. Not so fast, says Associated Press in the pages of MediaNews' San Jose Mercury News. AP reports that while "portions of two documents" will be unsealed, the plaintiffs "failed to convince (Illston) to open key documents" in the case.
San Francisco Bay Guardian | AP via San Jose Mercury News |
01-25-2007 1:19 pm |
Legal News
MoVoxx Partners with Bay Guardian to Deliver Exclusive Weekly Mobile Offers to its Readers
MoVoxx press release |
01-24-2007 4:50 pm |
Press Releases
Bay Guardian Asks Court to Unseal Hearst/MediaNews Documentsnew
The San Francisco alt-weekly and the Media Alliance filed papers yesterday to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc., reports Editor & Publisher. The Bay Guardian hopes to unseal documents filed by the two companies in the case. "The courts are supposed to operate in public, and there's a clear public interest in this information," says Editor and Publisher Bruce Brugmann (pictured). "Our intent here is to ensure that the nation's biggest newspaper chains, as they move to destroy daily competition and impose a regional monopoly on the Bay Area, cannot do so in the dark of night with sealed records that set a terrible precedent for the free press, the First Amendment, and open government."
Editor & Publisher |
12-22-2006 4:07 pm |
Legal News
Bay Guardian Pricing Lawsuit Set for Julynew
A Superior Court Judge has declined to delay the trial in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's predatory pricing suit against its two main competitors, Village Voice Media papers SF Weekly and East Bay Express. The Guardian charges the two weeklies with selling ads below cost in an effort to put it out of business.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
12-20-2006 1:53 pm |
Industry News
Bay Guardian Says Web Site Hacked Again
For the second time this year, the San Francisco Bay Guardian weathered an election-day assault on its Web site, according to Executive Editor Tim Redmond. The trouble started about 10 p.m. Monday night, when server traffic spiked by several million requests per minute. With extensive election coverage and candidate endorsements, the Bay Guardian might be targeted by any number of city and state political foes, Redmond says. But since a similar attack on June 6, the paper installed new servers and beefed up its bandwidth capacity. "The good news is that we were expecting them and successfully fended them off," Redmond says.
11-08-2006 11:21 am |
Industry News
Bay Guardian Swept up in Backlash Over 'Croc Hunter' Costumenew
U.S. Halloween revelers wearing the guise of Steve Irwin have triggered a furor Down Under. The Age and The Australian, two of the country's largest dailies, cited the San Francisco Bay Guardian among the arbiters of bad taste for ranking "Croc Hunter" garb No. 1 on its list of "Great Bad Ideas for Halloween Costumes." The Bay Guardian kept company with culprits such as comedian Bill Maher, who sported a khaki shirt replete with bloody barb at a Los Angeles Halloween party.
The Age | The Australian |
11-01-2006 10:57 am |
Industry News
