San Francisco newspaper strike of 1994
Encyclopedia
The San Francisco Newspaper Strike of 1994 was a labor dispute called by the Newspaper Guild in November 1994. Employees of San Francisco's two major daily newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

 and The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th century.-19th century:...

 walked off the job for eleven days.

Leadup to the strike

San Francisco's two major daily newspapers were longtime rivals that had been working under a joint operating agreement since 1965. Employees had been working without a contract for the past year.

Wages were one major issue leading to the strike: while the unions demanded a 3.5 percent annual raise, management offered only a 2.46 percent annual raise over four years. Another point of contention was management's plan to cut the jobs of more than 150 teamster drivers over several years.

The strike

Starting on November 1, 1994, some 2,600 reporters, editors, drivers, press operators and paper handlers of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

 and The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th century.-19th century:...

 walked off the job.

The strike turned violent. Bricks were thrown through paper carriers' windshields as they drove from the newspaper distribution center, and one non-union driver was hit on the head with a lead pipe, suffering a fractured skull. One teamster driver was killed by electricity when scaling a power pole.

Two online newspapers

At the beginning of the strike, The Examiners Head of Development Chris Gulker
Chris Gulker
Christian Frederick Gulker was an American photographer, programmer, writer, and pioneer in electronic publishing....

 re-launched his pilot web project called the
Electric Examiner as The Gate, thus creating the official online version of San Francisco's two big newspapers. This news service remained "heavily dependent on wire-service stories" for lack of contributing journalists and editors.

The striking journalists set up their own online newspaper, the
San Francisco Free Press, and competed with The Gate as "the soul of the Examiner and the Chronicle." Led by the Examiners Associate Editor Bruce Koon and former SF Weekly editor Marcelo Rodriguez, they received assistance from Dave Winer
Dave Winer
Dave Winer is an American software developer, entrepreneur and writer in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web services, as well as blogging and podcasting...

, who pitched in helping automate the production process. The team operated from a makeshift newsroom using their own hardware and a local ISP
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

 for rented server space.

The Free Press scored a scoop during its first week, reporting that Senator Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is the senior U.S. Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988....

 had been wrongly accused of hiring an illegal alien in the early 1980s.

During the strike both online newspapers were claiming a total of more than 100,000 readers a day, which was a fraction of the actual newspapers' estimated circulation of 600,000, but far beyond the 10,000 or so people in the Bay Area who had access to them.

Negotiations and settlement

On November 12, 1994, after eight straight days of negotiations mediated by San Francisco's Mayor, Frank Jordan
Frank Jordan
Francis M. “Frank” Jordan is a U.S. politician, foundation executive and former Chief of Police.Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1953...

, the newspaper strike came to an end as management and a conference of eight unions announced a tentative agreement.

Impact

The two competing electronic newspapers published during the strike have been hailed as "a milestone for online news," especially since the "speed and relative ease with which both groups published electronic newspapers was a clear demonstration of the power of computers and digital networks for distributing information to a potential audience of millions of computer users worldwide." The strike "put the Web on the radar screens of news organizations" and triggered an "exodus" of Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th century.-19th century:...

 staff to the web. Among them was David Talbot
David Talbot
David Talbot is a progressive journalist, bestselling author and media entrepreneur. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of one of the first web magazines, Salon.com...

, who founded Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

after the Guild's online newspaper convinced him of the "potential of the new medium."

External links

The San Francisco Free Press (Archive)
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