my local rag is dying

They announced the latest round of layoffs in the spring, but the demise began long before that.

I felt the stab in my heart on Sunday, July 17 when Live!Rude!Girl! announced this was her last column. She was one of the few columnists worth reading and, along with Minerva's horoscope and the Frank Longo crossword puzzle, the only redeeming thing about the San Francisco Chronicle's Pink section.

The signs it was going wrong began so, so long ago. When the Sporting Green turned white instead of green. When Adair Lara became an occasional reporter instead of a regular columnist. When the Sunday Book Review shrank to four pages. And I won't even start on the Phil Bronstein mismatch. But most annoyingly, through all the mayhem and upheaval, the Chron has yet to figure out how to eliminate the. damn. creases. in. sections. of. the. paper. The creases are never in the whole paper, just in the one section you inevitably want to kick back and read. The sports section. The datebook section. The silly Matier and Ross political gossip (not news, never news) column. But you can't just relax and read because you have to keep yanking to straighten the paper. And you can't yank too hard or you'll rip the page, and the paper's barely readable as it is. How have they not ponied up for the technology to fix this? How hard can it be?

One of my dear friends, Ms. Q, is a crackerjack reporter in NYC who grew up on the Chronicle. Her brother wrote for it for years, and she still waxes nostalgic about Herb Caen's columns. And I loved the paper in the 80's and early 90's when Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City ran in daily installments, Patricia Holt produced a thoughtful, comprehensive Book Review that featured new and local writers as well as the accepted "old guard", Susan Yoachum wrote some of the shrewdest political commentary ever, Marc Sandalow offered serious coverage of the local political scene, and Louis Freeberg contributed an insider's view on the dissolution of the old South Africa, while posing provocative and timely questions about how race still permeates American life. The Chron would never be a paper of record like the New York Times or the Washington Post, and it didn't offer the in-depth coverage of the Los Angeles Times, the paper I grew up reading. But it had some amazing talent and it gave them a free hand to cover their beats, while accurately covering the concerns of our bustling little (and parochial) metropolis. The paper was defensible for what it was, and ambitious journalists knew to leave for more competitive papers 'cuz the Chron never had serious aspirations to be anything other than the local rag.

The initial death knell rang years ago when the Examiner folded and the Chronicle and Examiner staffs merged. Two fully staffed newsrooms in a city that produced little of note was a precarious scenario from the get go. So cuts were made (i.e. reporters let go) where there was "duplication". Some would call that the first blow. But the merger came with a financial cushion that was good for a few years, so there was a lot of grumbling, but little desperation. This stage included a lot of Phil Bronstein blustering about the Chronicle having to redefine itself for its current audience. (Translation -- a former foreign correspondent who covered the destruction in Central America during the '80's is now crafting the paper to appeal to Contra Costa County readers to boost market share).

Then the rumblings about losing money began in earnest. And escalated. And everywhere, all you heard was the paper's hemorrhaging money, and can't hold on much longer. In June, the announcement came that the paper would make a 20% cut in its staff, with buyouts and whatever polite euphemism you want to use for firing.

That, at least, is my interpretation of why my local rag is dying. But what do I know? A more informed version of the events can be found at David Weir's website, hotweir.blogspot.com, under the Aug. 17 entry.

As much as it's pained me to see talented journalists depart and an institution flag, the greatest affront has got to be a current feature on the Chronicle's website, sfgate.com. It's a tribute to all those loyal, departing staff entitled: Colleagues Remembered, The San Francisco Chronicle honors departing staff members. I kid you not. See why it's been referred to as the Comical?

It's kind of like a murderer writing his victim's obituary. Okay, that comparison's out of proportion. But the feature is tasteless. And offensive. And too often, that's the state of contemporary "news" in America.

My Sunday's are not the same without Live!Rude!Girl! To sample some of her work, check her out at www.myspace.com/liverudegirl.