Strange Upside to the Loss of 150 SF Chronicle Reporters and Editors

Within the past 6 weeks, the Chronicle's staff has dropped precipitously through buyouts and layoffs.

But the news has turned out to be strangely good for authors and other artists.

That's because many former Chron reporters are now freelancing pieces for the paper, and lots of these stories feature artists.

It's understandable because a reporter can turn around a short profile in a day and when one is getting paid freelance rates ($250 a story?) speed and ease are important. More complex trend pieces take longer but are compensated at the same rate.

There have been at least four major profiles of Bay Area authors in just the past week. They include:

Steve Rubenstein wrote about Andy Raskin, the author of The Ramen King and I.

Heidi Benson wrote about Susan Cohen and Christine Cosgrove, who wrote a book about the use and misuse of growth hormones on children in Normal at Any Cost.

Edward Guthmann wrote about gay men and the divas they love, a book edited by Michael Montlack.

Regan McMahon wrote about Ayelet Waldman and her new memoir Bad Mother.

John McMurtrie, the editor of the book review, also penned an interview recently with Andrew Sean Greer.

This is definitely a huge increase from the period before the layoffs.

Chronicle Lays Off More Reporters -- What Will Be Left to Read?

Reports are filtering in that the long-anticipated layoffs happened today at the Chronicle. Once again, the reporters who are exiting the building on Fifth and Mission Streets in San Francisco are seasoned journalists who have done fine work. The 15 who were let go include:

Update: I have removed the names of those laid off by request. However, I want to note that those who were laid off should not regard it as a dark mark against their reputations. They were fine reporters, merely caught in a changing industry and a declining economy.

The article continued...

A few of these reporters were sent home today; a few were told they had jobs until August. This latter group also learned that they if they left before then, they would not get a severance payment.

There has been a substantial change in the Chronicle in the last month with the exit of more than 100 reporters and editors. The paper is very thin and most articles are short. The paper is still managing to do some good reporting, but those articles are piled onto the front page . When you open the Bay Area section, there is barely anything there.

The Chronicle Keeps on Losing People

The Hearst Corporation is still keeping mum about the number and names of people who have taken a buyout from the San Francisco Chronicle, but a few more names have come out.

One of the paper’s top reporters, Seth Rosenfeld, who has produced stories that have garnered national attention, is leaving. Rosenfeld has written extensively about the secret doings of the University of California, and won awards for a 2002 series on how the FBI illegally gathered information at the university during the Cold War, and then tried to cover up its involvement.

Steve Rubenstein, who wrote column-like stories on quirky people and places around the Bay Area is departing.

Other departures include:

Ruthe Stein, who writes about the film world.

Tanya Schevitz, an education reporter.

Bill Burnett, real estate editor

Jennifer Thelen, a copy editor

Steve Hornbostel, a page designer

John Batteiger, a business wire editor

Rich Pestoric, an arts and graphics designer

Long time culture and arts reporter Steve Winn left recently as well.

UPDATE April 3, 2009:

Here are some additional names of reporters and editors leaving the Chronicle:

Elizabeth Fernandez, health and medicine reporter
George Raine, business reporter (advertising and marketing)
Gwen Knapp, sports columnist
Rico Mendez, page designer
Janet Fletcher, food reporter
Reyhan Harmanci, Datebook trends reporter
Glenn Schwarz, sports editor
Greg Ambrose, news and business copy editor
Rod Jones, news copy editor
Beth Hughes, news copy editor

The business side – advertising and classified – is also losing many employees.

Many of these reporters apparently were motivated to accept a buyout in order to preserve their pensions. The pension fund has lost about $25 million in value with the recent stock market dip. If reporters agreed to depart by April 3, 2009, they could get their pension paid out in a lump sum and retire by 55.

With the drop in the pension fund’s value, Hearst apparently plans to change its retirement rules, moving up the age of retirement to 65 and switching to an annuity, which pays out annually, rather than a lump sum retirement. For many reporters in their 50s, staying on under those circumstances just didn’t pencil out.

In response to all these departures, the Newspaper Guild is forming a new unit for freelancers. They are going to hold their first meeting Friday April 3 at noon at the California Media Workers building at 433 Natoma Street in San Francisco.

Top Reporters will be leaving the San Francisco Chronicle

Names are trickling in of the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who are taking a buyout. More than 40 are leaving in this round, and collectively they have more than 1,000 years at the institution. (This is only a partial list, as more than 80 people have applied for the buy out.)

Some of the paper's veteran reporters and biggest names are leaving. It looks like music, books and arts coverage will be hit hard, as well as the photo department.

Here are the names:

Joel Selvin, who has covered the rock and roll scene for 30 years or so.

Carl Hall, a longtime science reporter currently on leave.

Tom Meyer, editorial cartoonist.

Zachary Coile, a long-time reporter in the Washington D.C. bureau.

Nancy Gay, who covers 49ers football and other major league teams.

Three of the papers top culture writers are departing, including Jesse Hamlin, Edward Guthmann, and Heidi Benson. They frequently profile authors, actors, and musicians.

Sabin Russell, who has covered science for decades.

Alison Biggar, the long-time editor of the Chronicle Magazine.

Sylvia Rubin, who covers fashion.

Bernadette Tansey, a biotech reporter. (She has been writing a new feature each Sunday that I love, a round-up of books on a particular business topic, but done in a very clever way.)

The photography department will take a big hit as six photographers, including Pulitzer-Prize winner Kim Komenich, are departing. The others include Michael Maloney, Craig Lee, Eric Luse, Mark Costatini and Kurt Rogers, a sports photographer

Other departures include:

Kevin Albert, editorial assistant

Greg Ambrose, copy editor

Charles Burress (who has covered Berkeley for years.)

Peter Cafone, sports copy editor

Ken Costa, graphic designer

Dan Giesin, sports copy editor
Janice Greene, editorial assistant on the op-ed page
Elizabeth Hughes, copy editor
Leslie Innes, Datebook editor
Timothy Innes, foreign news wire editor
Rod Jones, copy editor, news
Eric Jungerman, designer
Kathy Kerrihard, library researcher
Simar Khanna, editor of Home and Garden section
Bonnie Lemons, copy editor, news
Glenn Mayeda, editorial assistant, sports
Johnny Miller, library researcher
Shirley-Anne Owden, copy editor, features
Courtenay Peddle, copy editor, news
Lee Sims, copy editor, news
Michelle Smith, a sports reporter who covers women’s basketball
Patricia Yollin, metro reporter

The deadline for taking a buyout is Tuesday, and after that the Hearst Corporation plans to layoff more editorial, production, and advertising staff to bring the cuts to 150. So the list will grow longer. Hearst had wanted to lay off as many as 225 workers, (and threatened to shutter the paper) but backed off after the Newspaper Guild agreed to cuts in vacation time and seniority rules.

Just two years ago the Chronicle, which is losing about $1 million a week, laid off 100 people.