As the economic vise tightens around all of us, but around newspapers more tightly than most, readers may become more suspicious about the influences bearing down on what was once a free and vibrant press. Suspicions like being unduly influenced by commercial pressures. Anyone who has ever worked in...

We knew that Hearst's moves in Seattle -- saying in early January that it would sell or close down the Post-Intelligencer -- was just a dry run for San Francisco. After all, the Hearst-owned Chronicle has bled more than a quarter of a billion dollars by most estimates since Hearst bought it in 2000....

And now, putting shivers into executives and managers everywhere, the words, "let's do a reassessment." It's as predictable as Claude Rains' Captain Renault in Casablanca. Instead of rounding up the usual suspects , thought, new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will be rounding up the usual assessments. You kn...

One of the biggest questions that we all seem to be asking a lot is whether or not newspapers as we know them will be around even five years from now. Folks really into the social media and Web 2.0 world would have us believe that newsprint is already dead but newspaper corporations won’t acce...

I interviewed him by phone Friday, Nov. 14. Here’s his blog. Luke: "Tim, what are the differences in the sports cultures between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area?" Tim: "I grew up in the Bay Area. It was more me getting used to the LA sports culture and getting right b...

Microsoft took out a full-page ad in the San Jose Mercury News today, in an attempt to highlight its recruiting efforts in Silicon Valley. Of course, BoomTown is not sure the crack engineers that Microsoft (MSFT) is seeking actually read newspapers. But we like the software giant’s spunk at a ...

Scott Herhold writes for the San Jose Mercury News: In a first-floor room at the Economy Inn in Morgan Hill, the clothed body of porn director Inkyo Volt Hwang, 38, lay face down, half off and half on the bed, an empty box of Milk Duds near his head. Hwang’s body was found Sept. 29 a few feet ...