THE CRISIS facing the US newspaper industry deepened yesterday when it emerged that San Francisco’s leading daily was in danger of closure unless its owners find ways to cut costs.
The 145-year-old San Francisco Chroniclejoined a succession of US newspapers facing drastic measures or extinction. Earlier this week the owners of the Philadelphia Inquirerfiled for bankruptcy protection, following an example set in December by Tribune, owners of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
In southern California the San Diego Union-Tribunefaces closure unless new owners are found, as does Denver's Rocky Mountain News. The Boston-based Christian Science Monitor has announced it will discontinue its daily print edition and concentrate on the web product.
If the Chroniclecloses, San Francisco will become the largest city in the US to lose its main newspaper. In a front-page article in yesterday's paper, the Chronicle's owners delivered the sobering news: " Chroniclefaces cuts in staff, expenses".
The article was placed alongside a headline declaring “We will recover” above a picture of US president Barack Obama.
Painting a picture of declining revenues, sprawling costs and dwindling readership, executives of the Hearst Corporation, which has owned the Chroniclesince 2000, said that without swift and deep cuts the paper would be sold or closed.
“Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve,” Hearst officials said in a statement.
"But without specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicleorganisation we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle, and, should a buyer not be found, to shut down the newspaper."
It is understood that significant staff cuts are likely to address the $50 million (€39.3 million) loss incurred by the title in 2008. The paper’s president, Mark Adkins, told a newsroom meeting that the situation was urgent. “This has to happen quickly,” he said. “We are talking about days and weeks.”
The litany of problems affecting the Chronicleis common to many newspapers: a shift of paying readers to the internet, a decline in advertising revenue, and rising costs.
The Chroniclewas founded in the wake of the California gold rush and former writers include Mark Twain. – (Guardian service)