San Francisco Chronicle The 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 , from the Sacramento area and Emerald Triangle south to Santa Barbara County . It was founded in 1865 as " The Daily Dramatic Chronicle " by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H . de Young . The paper grew along with San Francisco and was the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the United States by 1880 . It has experienced a rapid fall in circulation in the early 21st century , and was ranked 24th by circulation nationally for the six months to March 2010 . History . Between World War II and 1971 , new editor Scott Josephine Newhall took a bold and somewhat provocative approach to news presentation . Newhall ' s Chronicle included investigative reporting by such journalists as Pierre Salinger , later to play a prominent role in national politics , and Paul Avery , the staffer who pursued the trail of the self - named " Zodiac Killer " whose crimes chilled late - 1960s San Francisco . It also featured such colorful columnists as Pauline Phillips , who wrote under the name " Dear Abby , " " Count Marco " ( Marc Spinelli ) , Stanton Delaplane , Terence O ' Flaherty , Lucius Beebe , Art Hoppe , Charles McCabe , and Herb Caen . The newspaper grew in circulation to become the city ' s largest , overtaking the rival " San Francisco Examiner " . The demise of other San Francisco dailies through the late 1950s and early 1960s left the " Examiner " and the " Chronicle " to battle for circulation and readership superiority . Joint Operating Agreement . The competition between the Chronicle and Examiner took a financial toll on both papers until the summer of 1965 , when a merger of sorts created a Joint Operating Agreement under which the " Chronicle " became the city ' s sole morning daily while the " Examiner " changed to afternoon publication ( which ultimately led to a declining readership ) . The newspapers were officially owned by the San Francisco Newspaper Agency which managed sales and distribution for both newspapers and was charged with ensuring that one newspaper ' s circulation did not grow at the expense of the other . Revenue was split equally , which led to a situation widely understood to benefit the Examiner wherein the Chronicle , which had a circulation four times larger than its rival , subsidized the afternoon newspaper . The two newspapers ' produced a joint Sunday edition , with the " Examiner " publishing the news sections and the Sunday magazine and the " Chronicle " responsible for the tabloid entertainment section and the book review . From 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified - advertising operation . This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the " Chronicle " . Push into the Suburbs . Beginning in the early 1990s , the " Chronicle " started to face competition beyond the borders of San Francisco . The newspaper had long enjoyed a wide reach in Northern California , along the Central Coast , Inland Empire and even distributed papers as far as Honolulu , Hawaii . There was little competition in the Bay Area suburbs and other areas that the newspaper served , but as Knight Ridder purchased most of the East Bay newspapers in 1995 , the " Chronicle " realized it had to step up suburban coverage . The " Chronicle " launched five zoned sections to appear in the Friday edition of the paper . The sections covered San Francisco , and four different suburban areas . They each featured a unique columnist , enterprise pieces and local news specific to the community . The newspaper added 40 full - time staff positions to work in the suburban bureaus . Despite the push to focus on suburban coverage , the " Chronicle " was hamstrung by the Sunday edition , which , being produced by the San Francisco - centric " un - " Chronicle " " " Examiner " , had none of the focus on the suburban communities that the " Chronicle " was striving to cultivate . Sale to Hearst . The de Young family controlled the paper , via the Chronicle Publishing Company , until July 27 , 2000 , when it was sold to Hearst Communications , Inc . , which owned the " Examiner " . Following the sale , the Hearst Corporation transferred the " Examiner " to the Fang family , publisher of the " San Francisco Independent " and " AsianWeek " , along with a $ 66 - million subsidy . Under the new owners , the " Examiner " became a free tabloid , leaving the " Chronicle " as the only daily broadsheet newspaper in San Francisco . In 1949 , the de Young family founded KRON - TV ( Channel 4 ) , the Bay Area ' s third television station . Until the mid - 1960s , the station ( along with KRON - FM ) , operated from the basement of the Chronicle Building , on Mission Street . KRON moved to its present studios at 1001 Van Ness Avenue ( on the former site of St . Mary ' s Cathedral , which burned down in 1962 ) . KRON was sold in 1999 and , after years of being San Francisco ' s NBC affiliate , became an independent station on January 1 , 2002 when NBC switched affiliation to KNTV in San Jose after buying that station from Granite Broadcasting Corporation for $ 230 million . Since the Hearst Corporation took ownership in 2000 the Chronicle has made periodic changes to its organization and design , but on February 1 , 2009 , as the newspaper began its 145th year of publication , the Chronicle ' s Sunday edition introduced a redesigned paper featuring a modified logo , new section and page organization , new features , bolder , colored section - front banners and new headline and text typography . The frequent bold - faced , all - capital - letter headlines typical of the Chronicle ' s front page were eliminated . Editor Ward Bushee ' s note heralded the issue as the start of a " new era " for the Chronicle . On July 6 , 2009 , the paper unveiled some alterations to the new design that included yet newer section fronts and wider use of color photographs and graphics . In a special section publisher Frank J . Vega described new , state - of - the - art printing operations enabling the production of what he termed " A Bolder , Brighter Chronicle . " The newer look was accompanied by a reduction in size of the broadsheet . Such moves are similar to those made by other prominent American newspapers such as the " Chicago Tribune " and " Orlando Sentinel " , which in 2008 unveiled radically new designs even as changing reader demographics and general economic conditions necessitated physical reductions of the newspapers . On November 9 , 2009 , the " Chronicle " became the first newspaper in the nation to print on high - quality glossy paper . The high - gloss paper is used for some section fronts and inside pages . Staff . As of 2009 the publisher of the " Chronicle " is Frank J . Vega , the President is Mark Adkins , the executive vice president and editor is Ward H . Bushee and the editorial page editor is John Diaz . Web . The online version of the newspaper , SFGate . com is led by President Mark Adkins . As well as publishing the " San Francisco Chronicle " online , SFGate adds other features not available in the print version , such as blogs and podcasts . SFGate was one of the earliest major market newspaper websites to be launched , having done so in 1994 , at the time of The Newspaper Guild strike ; meanwhile the union published its own news website , " San Francisco Free Press " . Praise , criticism and features . The paper has received the Pulitzer Prize on a number of occasions . Despite an illustrious and long history , the paper ' s news reportage is not as extensive as in the past . The current day " Chronicle " has followed the trend of other American newspapers , devoting increasing attention to local and regional news and cultural and entertainment criticism to the detriment of the paper ' s traditionally strong national and international reportage , though the paper does maintain a Washington , D . C . , bureau . This increased focus on local news is a response to the competition from other Bay Area newspapers including the resurrected " San Francisco Examiner " , the " Oakland Tribune " , the " Contra Costa Times " and the " San Jose Mercury News " . Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru - Wada received the 2004 George Polk Award for Sports Reporting . Fainaru - Wada and Williams were recognized for their work on uncovering the BALCO scandal , which linked San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds to performance - enhancing drugs . While the two above - named reporters broke the news , they are by no means the only sports writers of note at the Chronicle . The Chronicle ' s sports section , called " Sporting Green " as it is printed on green - tinted pages , is staffed with two dozen writers . The section ' s best - known writers are its columnists : Bruce Jenkins , Gwenn Knapp , Scott Ostler , and Ray Ratto . Another area of note is the architecture column by John King ; the " Chronicle " is still one of the few American papers to present a regular column on architectural issues . The paper also has regular weekly sections devoted to ' Food ' , ' Home & Garden ' , and ' Wine ' , the latter of which is unique . " San Francisco Chronicle Magazine " is published on the first Sunday of each month and regularly focuses on the previously mentioned topics . In early 2006 a new section , ' 96 Hours ' , was added to the Thursday edition of the paper , covering entertainment from that day through Sunday . Herb Caen . Most likely the Chronicle ' s best - known and most widely quoted writer was the Pulitzer Prize - winning columnist Herb Caen ( 1916 – 1997 ) , a Sacramento native who joined the newspaper in 1938 to write a local - radio news column . Caen eventually covered city comings and goings of all kinds — politics , business , and society both high and low , with some San Francisco history added for good measure . He moved to the rival " Examiner " in 1950 but returned to what he often called " The Chron " in 1958 , where he remained until retirement . His column was subtitled " " Baghdad - by - the - Bay " " for many years and later shortened to an eponymous title for the rest of its existence . For many years " " Herb Caen " " was the only feature on its page ( it traditionally shared a section front with a Macy ' s advertisement ) . For most of his column ' s history , Caen somewhat in jest railed against the slang " Frisco " , considering it a demeaning term for the city , and in 1953 wrote a book called " " Don ' t Call It Frisco " " after a 1918 " Examiner " news item of the same name . Caen ' s view of San Francisco was egalitarian and eclectic ; he made the daily round of restaurants , clubs , bars , and shops in both the tony and the less elegant quarters of the city . Among his friends were socialites , artists , business leaders , politicians , visiting celebrities , and the unknown eking out an unglamorous existence on the downtown streets — characters equally prominent on the city ' s stage in Caen ' s view . Caen gave his readers an intimate cross - sectioned look at San Francisco that few local writers anywhere could offer . Caen also took a positive , if sometimes bemused , view of those in the forefront of the convulsive cultural ( and counter - cultural ) changes to the city from the 1950s to the 1970s . Frequent observations of the city ' s " beatnik s " ( a term he may have coined ) and " hippie s " appeared in his writing , and he extended the hand of acceptance to those who added to San Francisco ' s warmth and color . With tongue - in - cheek he called his writing " three - dot journalism " ; his columns comprised brief items neatly tied together by ellipses . His Sunday feature was often a sentimental retrospective of San Francisco , sometimes comparing the present state of the city with the 1930s and 1940s — which he celebrated as a halcyon time . Though he lamented the incursion of freeways , high - rise towers , and chain stores as a devaluing of his beloved " city on golden hills , " he usually concluded that his adopted home town ' s beauty and character was sufficient to withstand any and all changes . From the late 1940s to late 1990s a dozen books of Caen ' s writing and reflections were published . In late 1996 , after some protracted absences led readers to inquire after his whereabouts , Caen disclosed that he was being treated for lung cancer ; after several public ceremonies and fetes ( and after a section of the city ' s waterfront Embarcadero was renamed for him ) he retired , passing away on February 1 , 1997 . Challenges . Circulation has fallen precipitously since the heyday of the dot - com boom from 1997 to 2001 . The Chronicle ' s circulation dropped by 16 . 6 % between 2004 and 2005 to 400 , 906 ; in 2006 , daily circulation dropped to 373 , 805 . In response , the newspaper has cut back on local news coverage and takes many national and international stories from the Associated Press instead of relying on " Chronicle " correspondents . There have also been major cutbacks in staff , with one fourth of the newsroom being let go in 2007 . At the same time , the online edition has continued its growth and in 2006 SFGate was fifth among U . S . newspaper Web sites with 5 . 2 million unique users per month . On February 24 , 2009 , the Hearst Corporation released a statement that the " Chronicle " ' s financial position necessitated sharp and immediate reductions in operating costs . In a joint statement Frank A . Bennack Jr . , Hearst vice chairman and chief executive , and Steven R . Swartz , president of Hearst Newspapers , said that the paper , with a circulation of 312 , 000 , had sustained losses in every year since 2001 , lost more than $ 50 million in 2008 and faced an even gloomier 2009 . The statement read in part , " Without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization , we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for The Chronicle or , should a buyer not be found , to shut the newspaper down . " Media reports in late February speculated that the paper might be required to slash its workforce by half to remain in business . Hearst recently took the same course with the " Seattle Post - Intelligencer " , and if the " Chronicle " is closed San Francisco would be America ' s largest city without a full - service English - language daily newspaper . On October 26 , 2009 , the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that the " Chronicle " had suffered a 25 . 8 % drop in circulation for the six - month period ending September 2009 , to 251 , 782 subscribers , the largest percentage drop in circulation of any major newspaper in the United States . The " Chronicle " publisher , Frank Vega , said in response that the drop was expected as the paper moved to a business model that focused less on advertising , and hence less on high numbers of subscribers , and more on increased subscription fees . The paper claimed that the new strategy had produced significantly improved financial results . Historical note . The Zodiac Killer sent a cryptogram in three sections in letters to the Chronicle and two other papers during his murder spree in the late 1960s . Best - seller list . The " Chronicle " best - seller list represents data from booksellers in the greater San Francisco Bay Area , one of the major bookstore markets left in the United States .