The San Francisco Bay Guardian, the alternative weekly that had published for 48 years and was known for its coverage and support of LGBT rights, immigration reform, and progressive issues, abruptly shut down this week.
The announcement surprised the paper's queer publisher, Marke Bieschke, who said Tuesday that he was in "shock" at the decision announced earlier that day by the San Francisco Media Company, the paper's owners.
Bieschke said he hopes to keep the publication alive "somehow."
In a widely distributed email Tuesday, SF Media Company publisher Glenn Zuehls said the Bay Guardian "is not a viable business and has not been for many years."
The company, which also owns the daily San Francisco Examiner and the alternative SF Weekly, bought the Bay Guardian in 2012.
"The amount of money that the Bay Guardian loses each week is causing damage to the heart of the company and cannot justify its continued publication," Zuehls, who joined the company in June, said in his email.
Asked in an interview Tuesday how much the Bay Guardian's been losing, Zuehls said, "I'm not going to go into financial figures. We just haven't been profitable for years. That was the only route we had, to shut it down. Having any newspaper from San Francisco disappear is not a good thing," but "when you're losing money, you're taking the money from somewhere else."
He said, "The voice of the Guardian is something very, very special," and the paper has "made a difference in this city," but "the thing is, somebody had to pay for it."
Bieschke said he was shocked by the move, but "quite honestly, we kind of knew this was going to be unsustainable."
'Unicorns and lollipops'
Bieschke indicated he has felt uneasy about SF Media Co. ever since it bought the paper, and his concerns had grown after Zuehls arrived several months ago.
"Decisions were being made without us," Bieschke said, and he pointed to a meeting with Zuehls a couple weeks ago where "I was basically just yelled at for an hour."
He said at the meeting, where others were also present, Zuehls told him "when it comes to finances, we were living in the land of unicorns and lollipops."
Bieschke said the comment came after he'd questioned a printing change. That "drew his ire, and I was called onto the carpet," he said. Zuehls told him "he appreciated my passion," but "he couldn't really agree with our message."
"I didn't feel like it was homophobic," Bieschke said of the "unicorns and lollipops" remark, but "I can see how it could be read as that." He said he felt the remark was more "condescending" and a referral to "our progressive idealism."
He didn't ask Zuehls to explain his comment.
"It was 7:30 in the morning," he said. "I had just gotten in from DJ'ing [drag queen] Juanita Moore's party, and I was trying not to throw up."
Asked about the "unicorns and lollipops" remark, Zuehls said, "Excuse me? You're taking words out of context. ... Marke can comment on whatever he wants to comment on. I'll comment on your questions." He said he didn't have the conversation "taped or in front of me."
It seems clear SF Media Co. had had an uncomfortable relationship with the Bay Guardian.
"We just were not a right fit with the kind of corporate, old school, boys' club style of management and approach to finances," Bieschke said. "It was a very bottom line approach. I felt like our progressive message was looked on with suspicion, and I felt like we were the queer ones, and they didn't know what to do" with the paper.
'Best' is last
Bieschke said the latest edition of the paper's "Best of the Bay" issue, which came out Wednesday, had been "hugely successful" and brought in $112,000 worth of ad revenue.
The staff had planned to celebrate Tuesday. Word then came Monday that a staff meeting was planned for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
"We were hoping that it would have been like bagels and champagne, 'Let's celebrate,'" Bieschke said. Instead, Zuehls and general manager Pat Brown "came in and Glenn said that the 'Best of' issue would be the last."
Zuehls said that Bay Guardian employees "definitely" would be paid.
Asked about whether SF Media Co. had ever considered folding the Bay Guardian into SF Weekly, Zuehls said, "We looked at all options but [the Guardian's] voice is so strong. ... We didn't think it makes sense either for our customers or for the Guardian itself."
Just hours after the announcement, Bieschke said staff at the paper "are hoping to find a buyer who will help us survive, possibly in print form, or possibly in an online form."
He said, "We don't have anyone yet in mind" for potential buyers, but "I think we have a number of possibilities."
Bieschke doesn't count himself among them, though.
"I have no money," he said. "I'm a writer. I wish I could, but right now, no one on the staff is in a position to make an offer."
The paper has seven staffers. Two have been offered positions "elsewhere in the company," Bieschke said, but he wasn't "at liberty to say" who's gotten offers.
"Obviously," finding a buyer "within the year would be ideal," he said.
He added, "I feel like maybe this was a good parting of ways so that we could retain our high standards of news, arts, and culture coverage."
The Bay Guardian had a print circulation of 50,000, along with 400,000 page views on its website each month, according to Bieschke, whose promotion to the paper's top post in July 2013 was believed to make him the first out publisher of a non-LGBT paper in San Francisco.
'Sidelined'
Bieschke said even though he was the publisher and executive editor, he'd been "sidelined" when it came to "any financial information" pertaining to the Bay Guardian and "larger financial information about the company," so he couldn't comment on the paper or the company's viability.
"As far as I knew, the Guardian was healthy financially," Bieschke said.
Zuehls wouldn't comment on Bieschke being shut out of financial information, and he chastised the Bay Area Reporter for making such inquiries.
"All the things you're asking about Marke are statements he's making. ... It's hearsay. Any good reporter wouldn't do that," Zuehls said, adding that he wouldn't "speculate" on what Bieschke meant.
Bieschke also said his paper hadn't had "enough sales reps," and he hadn't been "empowered to hire more."
In response, Zuehls said, "That's one person's opinion." He said the company's sales representatives are "selling all three" publications, and he indicated he had worked to encourage that.
Zuehls said he'd made more than 30 calls to prospective advertisers and "most of them didn't want to be associated with the Guardian ." He added, "More than anything, we need some bigger customers, and we can't seem to get them with that product, and it shows with our financial statements." He declined to give examples of any of the advertisers he was referring to.
He did say, however, that he had given the paper editorial freedom.
"I've never questioned one story, one cover, anything," Zuehls said.
Bieschke indicated his agreement, saying, "The San Francisco Media Company never influenced our coverage. They kept their hands off" the editorial content.
In a statement, gay former San Francisco supervisor and current state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D), cited the paper's "strong" support of LGBT rights, prison reform, and other issues.
"I can hardly believe the news that the Bay Guardian has closed. It's something like a death in the family," Ammiano said. "It's the progressive family that has to come together and figure out what this will mean."
Zuehls said, "It would be the happiest day in my life" if someone called him and wanted to buy the Bay Guardian , but he said so far, those inquiries haven't come.
Bieschke said, "We're not going to let the progressive message of the Guardian die especially now during an election, so you will see us in some way shape or form somehow."
B.A.R. ties to SF Media Co.
Although the B.A.R. is independently owned by BAR Media Inc., two of its individual investing partners are former Examiner publisher Todd Vogt and Brown, general manager of SF Media Co.
In May, Vogt's business partners bought out his ownership stake in SF Media Co. and he was forced from the company. Zuehls was then brought in to run the day-to-day operations.
The B.A.R. remains majority-LGBT owned. Publisher Michael Yamashita and the Bob Ross Foundation, of which former B.A.R. publisher Thomas E. Horn is trustee, control 51 percent of BAR Media Inc., while Vogt and Brown have a combined 49 percent stake of the company.