SF Weekly
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| Type | Alternative weekly |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Village Voice Media |
| Publisher | Gil Padia |
| Editor | Tom Walsh |
| Founded | mid-1980s |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 55 Francisco Suite 710 San Francisco, California 94133 |
| Circulation | 65,000 (2011)[1] |
| Official website | SFWeekly.com |
SF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los Angeles, California LA Weekly. Founded locally in the mid 1980s and bought by Village Voice Media (then New Times Media) in 1995, SF Weekly has garnered notable national journalism awards and enjoys mixed reviews by the Bay Area community. The paper sponsors the annual SF Weekly Music Awards, also known as the "Wammies".
SF Weekly is politically independent, and encourages its writers to form and support educated opinions about the topics upon which they report. Contrarianism and questioning of political dogma is openly encouraged. The paper combines columns critical of both the left and right, emphasizing investigative reportage, long-form, narrative feature writing, and comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage.
The paper trains anywhere from 1-5 up and coming reporters per academic quarter, but interns must receive academic credit for their work.
Contents |
[edit] Sections
- News: includes local, regional and sometimes statewide short and long news stories
- Arts and Entertainment: includes a weekly calendar, city events listings, a music section with a weekly music column, several music features, show previews, and CD reviews. Also includes a bi-monthly Books and Arts section, a food column, DVD reviews, theater reviews, the nightlife column Bouncer, as well as the syndicated sex advice column Savage Love, and astrology chart Free Will Astrology.
- Online Offerings: the Snitch news blog, the All Shook Down music, the SFoodie food blog, and the Exhibitionist arts blog. All offer daily news and posts.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Armenian Genocide
With an October 30, 2007 Op-Ed blog entitled "SF's Needs to Kill Its Armenian Genocide Resolution", Benjamin Wachs stirred controversy due to remarks deemed to be extremely offensive by descendants of survivors of the genocide by pondering what gift would most appropriate for his girlfriend to celebrate Armenian Genocide Day.[2] The Weekly's former web editor David Downs responded by musing "If there was a genocide, then why is there so many left of you around to bitch?"[3]
[edit] Ethics
The SF Weekly was the subject of ethical controversy in Jan., 2006, when a column about the AVN porn awards misidentified the event's location and honorees. The paper's editor had apparently altered a column about a different event from years before.[4][5]
[edit] Bay Guardian Company, Inc. v SF Weekly, et al.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian, another free alternative weekly newspaper distributed every Wednesday in the SF Bay Area, sued SF Weekly in civil court, alleging that it tried to put the Bay Guardian out of business by selling ads below cost. The Guardian won the suit in March, 2008, and was granted a $6.2 million in damages, a figure that swelled to $21 million with antitrust penalties and interest by June 2010. After the verdict, the Guardian obtained court orders allowing it to seize and sell the Weeklys two delivery trucks and collect half of the Weeklys ad revenue.[6]
[edit] Awards
- 2002: Investigative Reporting: (Above 54,000) 1st Place: "Fallout" by Lisa Davis and John Mecklin, SF Weekly
- 2004: Investigative Reporting: (Above 50,000) 1st Place (tie): "Death, Maiming, Money, and Muni" by Peter Byrne, SF Weekly
- 2004: News Story: (Above 50,000) 1st Place: Lisa Davis, SF Weekly
- 2008: Cover Design: (Above 50,000) 1st Place: Darrick Rainey, "Wheelchairs of Fortune" July 25 2007; "Just Say No" May 23 2007, "Future Games" April 27 2007, SF Weekly
- 2009: News Story: (Above 50,000) 1st Place: "Snitch" by Ashley Harrell, SF Weekly
- National Society of Newspaper Columnists
- 2009: Humor: 1st Place: Katy St. Clair, Bouncer
[edit] References
- ^ ABC
- ^ Benjamin Wachs (30 October 2007). "SF's Needs to Kill Its Armenian Genocide Resolution". SF Weekly. http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2007/10/sfs_needs_to_kill_its_armenian.php. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
- ^ David Downs (16 November 2007). "Your Friday Morning Pre-Party: Boobs, Barry, Busan, and ... BoldWarKids". SF Weekly. http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2007/11/your_friday_morning_preparty_b.php. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
- ^ Tali Woodward (13 July 2006). "Porn story Puzzle: Behind the Infiltrator Mess at SF Weekly". San Francisco Bay Guardian. http://www.sfbg.com/40/17/news_porn.html. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
- ^ SFist Jackson (18 January 2006). "Did the SF Weekly Scapegoat Harmon Leon". SFist. http://sfist.com/2006/01/18/did_the_sf_weekly_scapegoat_harmon_leon.php. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
- ^ Bob Egelko (14 June 2010). "SF Weekly wants Guardian's damage award tossed". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/12/BASU1DU15B.DTL. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
[edit] External links
- SF Weekly official website
- The Snitch, official daily news blog
- All Shook Down, official daily music and art blog
- SF Foodie, official food and restaurants blog
- Bruce Brugmann Library, official library of articles and court documents regarding Bruce Brugmann and the ongoing legal dispute between SF Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian
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