3/16-3/17 RIP SF Chronicle?

When Hearst Corp announced at the end of February that it may be force to close the San Francisco Chronicle, journalists and media workers around the Bay Area exhaled a huge collective “What.The.Fuck?!” While everyone has an opinion on the paper and while may love to trash it just as much as we love to read it, the possible demise of San Francisco’s oldest and largest newspaper is really no laughing matter. A world without Violet Blue and Mark Morford? Totally unacceptable.

The response from the media workers and supporters is no joke. In addition to several closed door meetings between union workers, execs and supporters, over the next two days some of the area’s top media professionals will gather to weigh in on the situation and try to come up with some answers.

Tonight the UC Berkeley J-School hosts a round table discussion with several concerned journalists and public figures. Invited speakers include: Historian Gray Brechin, Investigative Reporter Lowell Bergman, Multimedia journalist Kevin Weston, Public radio producer Holly Kernan, San Francisco civic leader Clint Reilly and UC Berkeley Senior Lecturer Susan Rasky.

Then tomorrow is the mother of all discussions with tons of media professionals converging on the downtown San Francisco Library. The participant list is long and distinguished: Neil Henry, Dean, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism; Dr. Dina Ibrahim, Director of Broadcast Journalism, San Francisco State University; Kevin Keane, Executive Editor, Bay Area News Group-East Bay; Bruce Brugmann, Publisher, San Francisco Bay Guardian; David Cohn, Founder, Spot.US; Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, Editor, The Public Press; Louis Freedberg, Director, California Media Collaborative; Carl Hall, Local Rep, California Media Workers Guild; Martin Reynolds, Editor, Oakland Tribune; Dr. David Robinson, Senior Lecturer, Haas School of Business; Owen Rogers, Partner, IDEO; Ricardo Sandoval, Board President, SPJ Northern California Chapter and Assistant City Editor, Sacramento Bee; David Weir, Veteran Journalist, BNET; and Tom Murphy, Social Entrepreneur, RedwoodAge.com and Newswire21.org.

Check out one or both of these events to get the inside news on what’s going on inside the news.

The San Francisco Chronicle in Transition
3/16
Free
6-8pm
North Gate Library,
UC Berkeley
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/
A Conversation About the Chronicle
3/17
Free
5:30-7:30 pm
Koret Auditorium/ San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St. San Francisco
http://www.sfgov.org/sfgtv