American free alternative weekly newspaper
SF Weekly is[1] an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, and sponsored the SF Weekly Music Awards.
History
SF Weekly was founded locally in the late 1970s by Christopher Hildreth and Edward Bachman and originally named San Francisco Music Calendar, the Magazine or Poster Art. Hildreth saw a need for local artists to have a place to advertise performances and articles. The key feature was the centerfold calendar listings for local art events. The paper was bought by Village Voice Media (then New Times Media) in 1995.[2][3]
In September 2012, Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars bought Village Voice Media's papers and associated web properties from its founders and formed Voice Media Group.[4] Four months later, SF Weekly was sold to the San Francisco Media Company, owners of The San Francisco Examiner and the Weekly's long-time rival San Francisco Bay Guardian.[5] The publishers then had control of three of the four major English-language newspapers in San Francisco.[6]
In 2014, San Francisco Media Co. became fully owned by Black Press.[7][8] The Bay Guardian was closed in 2014,[9] leaving the Weekly as the only print alternative weekly in San Francisco.[10]
In December 2020, Clint Reilly Communications bought SF Weekly together with the Examiner. In September 2021 it announced that, at the end of that month it would cease publication "for the foreseeable future".[10] It had been adversely affected by the loss of classified ads after the rise of Craigslist.[1][11]
SF Weekly Music Awards
The annual SF Weekly Music Awards were based on a popular vote for nominees[12] and were announced in October at the Warfield Theatre.[13][14]
Controversies
Ethics
SF Weekly was the subject of ethical controversy in January 2006, when a column about the AVN Awards misidentified the event's location and honorees. The paper's editor had apparently altered a column about a different event from years before.[15][16]
In July 2015, after Matt Saincome wrote Counting Cards at Graton Casino,[17] the casino notified SF Weekly of its intention to pull tens of thousands of dollars in ad buys, the publisher of SF Weekly, Glenn Zuehls, reportedly demanded that SF Weekly staff remedy the advertiser with a favorable cover story, by directly assigning the story to a reporter.[18]
Bay Guardian Company, Inc. v SF Weekly, et al.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian, another free alternative weekly newspaper in the San Francisco 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 $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 Weekly's two delivery trucks and collect half of the Weekly's ad revenue.[19]
Headquarters
The offices of SF Weekly are on Market Street.[20][8] Previous locations have included: 225 Bush Street, 55 Francisco Street,[21] Suite 3800 of 185 Berry Street (China Basin Landing), and 425 Brannan Street.
