Media in the San Francisco Bay Area
The media in the San Francisco Bay Area has historically focused on San Francisco but also includes two other major media centers, Oakland and San Jose. The Federal Communications Commission, Nielsen Media Research, and other similar media organizations treat the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Area as one entire media market. The region hosts to one of the oldest radio stations in the United States still in existence, KCBS (AM), founded by engineer Charles Herrold in 1909. As the home of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area is also a technologically advanced and innovative region, with many companies involved with Internet media or influential websites.
The press that once printed The Californian was moved to the Sacramento area to be used on the Placer Times. The press was again moved and began publishing the Motherlode's first paper, the Sonora Herald, then taken to Columbia to print the Columbia Star. Within a few years of the discovery of gold, mother lode towns all had multiple competing journals. Before 1860, California had 57 newspapers and periodicals serving an average readership of 290,000.
James King of William began publishing the Daily Evening Bulletin in San Francisco in October 1855 and built it into the highest circulation paper in the city. He criticized a city supervisor named James P. Casey, who, on the afternoon of the story about him, ran in the paper, shot and mortally wounded King. Casey was lynched by the early vigilante committee. The Morning Call was established and began publishing in December 1856, and later merged with the Bulletin to become the long-running Call-Bulletin. The San Francisco Chronicle debuted in June 1865 as the Dramatic Chronicle, founded by Charles and M.H. de Young aged 19 and 17.
In 1887, young William Randolph Hearst took over his father's Daily Examiner, which became the flagship of his national chain.
Fremont Older became editor of the San Francisco Bulletin in 1895 and took up the struggle against the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad and along with fellow Californian Lincoln Steffens, became a well-known muckraker and the first objective observer to accuse District Attorney Charles Fickert of the framing of labor radical Thomas Mooney.
The oldest African-American newspaper, still active in the 1930s, was the California Eagle. It appeared first in Los Angeles in 1879. The first French journals, the Californien and the Gazette Republicane both began in 1850, and were followed by the Courrier du Pacifique in 1852. Both the first German and first Italian papers, the California Demokrat and the Voce del Popolo were founded in San Francisco and had long runs. Chinese in California have published many newspapers, the first being the Gold Hills News in 1854.
Noted journalists, writers, cartoonists and publishers have passed through San Francisco's media world, including:
- Herbert Asbury
- Gertrude Atherton
- Ambrose Bierce
- Winifred Bonfils
- John Bruce
- Bruce Brugmann
- Gelett Burgess
- Herb Caen
- William Martin Camp
- Phil Elwood
- C.H. Garrigues
- Henry George
- Harold Gilliam
- Rube Goldberg
- Bret Harte
- William Randolph Hearst
- Warren Hinckle
- Art Hoppe
- Wallace Irwin
- Will Irwin
- Harry Jupiter
- James King of William
- Jack London
- Charles McCabe
- Joaquin Miller
- Prentice Mulford
- Fremont Older
- Randy Shilts
- Charles Warren Stoddard
- Mark Twain
- John L. Wasserman
Today, several newspapers, covering community, regional, national, and international news, and community-specific papers, catering to niche markets and individual neighborhoods, are in circulation in the San Francisco Bay Area. The major English-language newspapers include the daily East Bay Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and San Jose Mercury News. The weekly alternative papers are the Metro Silicon Valley, East Bay Express, and SF Weekly. The Epoch Times, Singtao Daily, World Journal, and Kangzhongguo are among the Asian newspapers that serve the Bay Area.
Newspapers
The Bay Area Reporter – free weekly LGBT newspaperEast Bay Times – daily broadsheetThe Daily News – weekly tabloidEast Bay Express – weekly alternativeMarin Independent Journal – daily broadsheetThe Epoch Times – weekly broadsheetThe Mercury News – daily broadsheetMetro Silicon Valley – weekly alternativeEl Observador – Spanish/English bilingual weeklyPalo Alto Daily Post – daily tabloidPalo Alto Weekly – weekly tabloidThe Recorder – daily legal newspaperSan Francisco Business Times – weekly businessSan Francisco Chronicle – daily broadsheetSan Francisco Daily Journal – daily legal newspaperThe San Francisco Examiner – daily tabloidSilicon Valley Business Journal – weekly businessAlameda Sun – weekly tabloidCastro Valley Forum – weekly tabloid- Several other community-based papers, published on a daily or weekly basis
;Ethnic newspapers
Aside from the major English broadsheets, the Bay Area also publishes newspapers catering to the large ethnic communities in the region, including:Calitoday – Vietnamese/English bilingual semiweeklyThe Epoch Times – Chinese daily broadsheetHromada - Ukrainian - It was co-created in 2017 by Lesya Castillo, who in 2022 served as the main editor.International Daily News – Chinese daily broadsheetKanzhongguo Times – ChineseThe Oakland Post – African AmericanSan Francisco Bay View – African AmericanSing Tao Daily – Chinese daily broadsheetVietnam Daily News – Vietnamese dailyVision Hispana – HispanicWorld Journal – Chinese daily broadsheet
- Several other Asian and Hispanic newspapers
Several college newspapers also exist as well in the Bay Area, including:The Advocate – weekly broadsheetThe Campanil The Daily Californian – daily broadsheetGolden Gate XPress Pioneer – weeklySan Francisco Foghorn – weekly tabloidThe Santa Clara – weekly tabloidSpartan Daily – thrice-weekly broadsheetThe Stanford Daily – daily broadsheet
- ''Synapse''
Magazines
7x7AfarBay NatureThe BelieverBob Cut MagThe Bold ItalicDwellHyphenMcSweeney's magazine and publishing houseMacworldMother JonesSalonSan Francisco magazineSOMASunsetThe Valley CatholicWired- ''FourTwoNine''
Television
The San Francisco Bay Area is currently the tenth-largest television market in the United States, with five of the six major U.S. television networks having owned-and-operated stations serving the region. All six, plus major Spanish-language networks Telemundo, Univision, and UniMás, also own and operate stations that serve the San Francisco market. KPIX, Channel 5, was San Francisco's first television station when it signed on the air on December 22, 1948; it was also the first commercial television station in northern California.In addition to local television channels, several television networks have regional news bureaus in the San Francisco Bay Area, including BBC, CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera America, Russia Today, CCTV America, and PBS. Regional sports networks NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California both originate from the studios of NBC-Telemundo duopoly KNTV-KSTS.
Radio
The San Francisco Bay Area is currently the fourth-largest radio market in the United States, with all of the major U.S. radio networks having affiliates serving the region. While most radio stations targeting the Bay Area originate in San Francisco, it also includes stations broadcasting from San Jose, mostly to South Bay listeners and other parts of the Bay Area depending on reception. The San Jose radio market ranks as the 37th largest, but is considered an embedded market within the Bay Area.Radio broadcasting in the region can be traced back to the efforts of Charles Herrold and Lee de Forest as early as 1907; Herrold would ultimately establish station KQW in 1921, now known as KCBS.