The Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco's scion of LGBT newspapers and longtime Castro town crier, announced online that they've signed a letter of intent with growing media monolith, San Francisco Newspaper Company who own SF Bay Guardian, the Examiner and recently acquired SF Weekly. This will allow SF's last Queer weekly to restructure.
According to both B.A.R. publisher Thomas E. Horn and general manager, Michael Yamashita, the B.A.R. isn't being sold.
Staff will remain the same and were informed on April 22nd of the impeding change. They will continue to publish as before and remain autonomous only now they hope to draw in larger, national advertisers to the paper. They are resolved to remain dedicated to representing LGBT interests and stories keeping content specific to the parameters of its readers interests.
The B.A.R. has struggled, like all print media, over the last decade. The B.A.R. had been printing around 35,000 copies of the paper for weekly distribution fifteen years ago. That number has decreased according to their own report to 29,000. The Bob Ross Foundation which runs the paper, net worth at one time had been estimated at 5.3 million dollars, is currently valued somewhere closer to 2.7 million according to another report by a B.A.R. staff reporter earlier this month.
Tom Horn
Recession, lower advertising dollars and the In roads made by online news sites and blogs has challenged all surviving print media for readers.
The difficulty is the changing demographics of the LGBT community and how many younger, potential readers feel more comfortable finding their information via internet sources over physical media. They read on the go by smart phone, tablet or laptop forgoing the physicality of a printed paper.
B.A.R. has a robust online presence-ebar.com-that includes up to the moment blogs featuring breaking stories as they occur. Exact numbers of unique hits and how this translates into new readers weren't available within the paper or found online in the digital publication's 'About' page.
Joining the distributing consortium will allow the B.A.R.'s print edition to expand eventually beyond San Francisco proper and into other communities in the East Bay like Oakland where the LGBT community has swelled since the housing crisis and rents have driven many out of SF in search of better economic environs. Eventually the paper would like to extend their reach to the South Bay and Peninsula. This could be a realty by joining in with a large corporate distribution entity like SF Newspaper Co.
The paper has certified verification that they still reach approximately 120,000 readers weekly. The idea is to continue to see this number grow as a direct result of streamlining advertising, production, accounting and administration with the help of their new partners.
The B.A.R. has been printing weekly since 1971 making it the longest running and largest LGBT weekly paper left standing. Its legacy, history and service to the Castro and greater SF community-and the world at large-is without parallel. This strategic business move should ensure its continued growth and future.
The Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco's scion of LGBT newspapers and longtime Castro town crier, announced online that they've signed a letter of intent with growing media monolith, San Francisco Newspaper Company who own SF Bay Guardian, the Examiner and recently acquired SF Weekly. This will allow SF's last Queer weekly to restructure.
According to both B.A.R. publisher Thomas E. Horn and general manager, Michael Yamashita, the B.A.R. isn't being sold.
Staff will remain the same and were informed on April 22nd of the impeding change. They will continue to publish as before and remain autonomous only now they hope to draw in larger, national advertisers to the paper. They are resolved to remain dedicated to representing LGBT interests and stories keeping content specific to the parameters of its readers interests.
The B.A.R. has struggled, like all print media, over the last decade. The B.A.R. had been printing around 35,000 copies of the paper for weekly distribution fifteen years ago. That number has decreased according to their own report to 29,000. The Bob Ross Foundation which runs the paper, net worth at one time had been estimated at 5.3 million dollars, is currently valued somewhere closer to 2.7 million according to another report by a B.A.R. staff reporter earlier this month.
