As rumors and speculations are in the air about of the SF Chronicle's possible buyout by the SF Examiner, the City's evening newspaper, the Chronicle is attempting to penetrate the Oakland Tribune's market, and, as Michael Collier, their East Bay Bureau Chief, says, "We want to own the East Bay." Working to fulfill that goal, they acquired the services of a little known columnist in the person of Chip Johnson, who many years ago worked for the Oakland Tribune. He is the Chronicle's publicity point man, or poster boy, in the East Bay.

In a brief interview with a former dean of UC Berkeley's School of Journalism, Ben Bagdikian, KQED's Scott Shafer asked him about the rumor of a possible swallow-up of the SF Chronicle by the Examiner; Bagdikian said that the Examiner will probably buy the SF Chronicle because of the ever-increasing electronic media's market-share into prints' revenues. So, in the face of this maybe, soon-to-be swallow-up, the San Francisco Chronicle, with a readership of approximately 500,000 is attempting to grow into the East Bay, a territory long conceded to East Bay newspapers like the ANG Newspaper group--owners of the Oakland Tribune--the Contra Costa Times, the Berkeley Gazette, The East Bay Express, and even the small hills newspaper, the Montclarion.

The SF Chronicle has always sought new readership, but it has not attempted such an aggressive encroachment into the East Bay as it is now doing. Looking to increase their readership, as the Oakland Tribune's readership is declining, they are targeting their hopes on the ethnic minority communities. This strategy may be the result of an increasing readership of the electronic media, as that media cut into the print media's readership. Such web newspapers and magazines as The Black World Today, Salon, and other web publications, even The Gibbs Magazine, are cheaper and faster to publish and circulate, and more people are starting to look to them on their jobs and at their homes.

Another factor that may weigh into the Chronicle's assault on the East Bay is this: minorities lag behind in their use of the web and information technology for information and news, therefore, they remain a viable readership increase-market for the SF Chronicle. If they can tap into that market, it may be a viable increase for the next few years.

As an indication of their strategy and intentions for the minority community, they have plastered their poster boy's face on billboards throughout and around the community. This poster boy, Chip Johnson, is an African American columnist they hope will be their serendipitous trove; that is why, with an uncommon range, his picture is strategically placed in the East Bay. Although their billboards claims that Chip Johnson covers the East Bay, that remains to be seen. One thing that is seen, however, is that the Chronicle is now reaching out to the African American and other ethnic minority readers. Their East Bay Bureau Chief acknowledges that they have a negative image in minority circles to overcome, if they are to break into the East Bay's minority market.

Ethel Long Scott, CEO of the Women's Economic Agenda Projects, states that "...both the Tribune and the Chronicle are deficient in their coverage of people of color." She calls it a media blackout of the poor and women of poverty.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Tribune, with its sagging readership, has been flip-flopping over its coverage of the flatlands and may be losing the more affluent hills readership. Since the days of Robert Maynard's ownership to the ANG's ownership, the newspaper's readership has gone down measurably. The causes for that decline certain go beyond the electronic media's cut into the print media's market-share. Anyone subscribing to the Oakland Tribune, as many of us do out of some sense of city pride or past loyalties, can see that although the owners have reorganized it, and continue to reorganize it, the paper still has too few significant news stories for a large town newspaper and too many of their stories are taken off the wire. But, to the Oakland Tribune's credit, their restructuring has resulted in a far more staff-written paper than they previously had. But far too often, the paper's stories have little local appeal and local relevance. After all, like all politics, city newspapers are local. The problem many newspapers wrestle with is discovering what is local.

Regardless of what the Oakland Tribune is doing, the reason the SF Chronicle has now found new interest in the East Bay is simple: the name of their newspaper game is business, and that means readership. And any readership is better than no readership. But their present strategy for acquiring a readership they have not regarded in the past is a bit deceptive and almost insulting.

The Chronicle wants East Bay readers to switch. Place cursor on the mass.

Chip Johnson was little known to most East Bay readers before he landed a position with the SF Chronicle and received such outrageous billing from what some generically call the White Media. But he just may be their ideal point-man, or poster boy, as he cited to us. He is black, and he is willing to be proffered by the SF Chronicle to court an unsuspecting minority, especially black, community's readership. They have placed him on billboards, but not really in the community, certainly, not in the black community. And it's not a place where he readily goes for stories. Sometimes, you understand, coverage of certain story-types can broad-brush a writer and give him an unwanted label, such as a black columnist/reporter. But when the Chronicle places his face so repetitiously in the community, they make him the story.

On the streets and in the Oakland community, the opinion of many ethnic minorities is that the SF Chronicle has never cared about the East Bay or minority communities, regardless of the side of the bay they live on. Yet, when it comes to the East Bay, it is felt that the SF Chronicle has been especially callous toward ethnic minorities in their coverage. In reporting on the black community, their credo, If it bleeds, it leads, has been insultingly brazen.

When this writer was the administrative head of Juvenile Court, there was never a shortage of SF Chronicle reporters (or other media reporters) covering the gore that went through our courts; yet, when the Juvenile Court-sponsored conferences occurred yearly, addressing the problems of our young people, there was always a conspicuous shortage of reporters covering that newsworthy event.

It is with this burden of history, and while the Oakland Tribune is organizing and reorganizing itself, that the SF Chronicle is trying to ease into the East Bay's minority market with little resistance and offering nothing more than a smiling, black face billboard(ed) throughout and around the community.

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