Media in the San Francisco Bay Area facts for kids
The San Francisco Bay Area is a really important place for all kinds of media, like newspapers, TV, radio, and online content! Even though San Francisco is the most famous city, Oakland and San Jose are also big media hubs. Companies like the Federal Communications Commission see the whole Bay Area as one big "media market," meaning they look at it as one area for how people get their news and entertainment.
Did you know that one of the oldest radio stations in the United States, KCBS (AM) (740 kHz), started here in 1909? It was founded by an engineer named Charles Herrold. Plus, since the Bay Area is home to Silicon Valley, it's a super high-tech place with many companies involved in Internet media and famous websites.
Contents
Newspapers and Magazines
The Bay Area has a long and interesting history with newspapers!
Early Newspapers
The very first newspaper printed by Americans in California was called The Californian. It was printed in Monterey in 1846 and announced the Mexican–American War. It was even printed half in English and half in Spanish!
Later, the printing press moved to San Francisco. In 1847, The Californian started printing again, competing with another weekly paper called California Star. The first newspaper printed only in English in San Francisco was The Star, started by a pioneer named Sam Brannan. This was before San Francisco was even called San Francisco (it was called Yerba Buena back then!).
When the California Gold Rush happened, many people left to find gold, so both papers stopped printing for a bit. But by August, The Californian was back, and by November 1848, the two papers joined together and became the Alta California.
The printing press that made The Californian moved around a lot! It went to the Sacramento area for a paper called the Placer Times, then to Sonora for the Sonora Herald, and even to Columbia for the Columbia Star. Within a few years of gold being discovered, many towns had several newspapers competing with each other. Before 1860, California had 57 newspapers and magazines!
Important Figures and Papers
In 1855, James King of William started the Daily Evening Bulletin in San Francisco. It quickly became the most popular paper in the city. He was known for criticizing powerful people. Later, the Morning Call started in 1856 and eventually joined with the Bulletin to become the Call-Bulletin.
The famous San Francisco Chronicle first appeared in June 1865. It was called the Dramatic Chronicle back then and was started by two young brothers, Charles and M.H. de Young, who were only 19 and 17 years old!
In 1887, a young man named William Randolph Hearst took over his father's newspaper, the Daily Examiner. This paper became the most important one in his huge national chain of newspapers.
Fremont Older became the editor of the San Francisco Bulletin in 1895. He was a "muckraker," which means he was an investigative journalist who worked to expose corruption and unfairness. He famously fought against the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad.
Diverse Voices
The Bay Area has always been home to many different communities, and their voices were heard through newspapers too! The oldest African-American newspaper, still active in the 1930s, was the California Eagle, which started in Los Angeles in 1879. The first French, German, and Italian papers also started in San Francisco in the 1850s. Chinese communities in California have published many newspapers, with the first being the Gold Hills News in 1854.
Famous Journalists and Writers
Many famous journalists, writers, cartoonists, and publishers have worked in San Francisco's media world, including:
- Ambrose Bierce
- Herb Caen
- William Randolph Hearst
- Jack London
- Fremont Older
- Mark Twain
Newspapers Today
Today, the San Francisco Bay Area still has many newspapers. They cover local, regional, national, and international news. There are also special papers for specific communities or neighborhoods.
Some of the main English-language newspapers include:
- San Francisco Chronicle
- San Francisco Examiner
- San Jose Mercury News
- Oakland Tribune
There are also weekly alternative papers like Metro Silicon Valley, East Bay Express, and SF Weekly. For Asian communities, papers like Singtao Daily and World Journal are very popular.
Local Newspapers
Here are some other newspapers you can find in the Bay Area:
- The Argus (Fremont)
- Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek)
- The Daily News (Palo Alto)
- Daily Review (Hayward)
- Marin Independent Journal (Novato)
- San Mateo County Times (San Mateo)
Ethnic Newspapers
The Bay Area has many newspapers for its diverse communities:
- The Epoch Times (Chinese)
- International Daily News (Chinese)
- The Oakland Post (African American)
- San Francisco Bay View (African American)
- Sing Tao Daily (Chinese)
- Vision Hispana (Hispanic)
- World Journal (Chinese)
College Newspapers
Many colleges in the Bay Area also have their own newspapers, written by students:
- The Campanil (Mills College)
- The Daily Californian (UC Berkeley)
- Golden Gate XPress (San Francisco State University)
- Pioneer (CSU Hayward)
- San Francisco Foghorn (University of San Francisco)
- Spartan Daily (San Jose State University)
- Synapse (UC San Francisco)
Magazines
The Bay Area is also home to many different magazines, covering topics from lifestyle to technology:
- 7x7
- Afar
- Bay Nature
- The Believer
- Dwell
- Hyphen
- McSweeney's
- Macworld
- Mother Jones
- Salon
- San Francisco magazine
- SOMA
- Sunset
- Wired
Online Media
Since the Bay Area is the home of Silicon Valley, it's a major center for online media and technology companies. Many publications now exist only online, and many big tech companies are based here.
Online Publications
Besides websites that are connected to print newspapers, many publications are only found online. Here are a few examples:
- Asian Week
- Beyond Chron
- The Bold Italic
- Curbed SF
- Grubstreet SF
- Hoodline
- Mission Local
- Mission Mission
- My Castro
- The San Francisco Appeal
- SF Public Press
- SFBay.ca
- SFist
- Streetsblog SF
- The Tender
The international news video channel AJ+, which is part of Al Jazeera Media Network, is also based in San Francisco.
Big Internet Companies
The Bay Area is where many huge technology companies involved with Internet media are located or have a big presence. These include:
Images for kids
-
Sutro Tower, a famous TV and radio antenna tower in San Francisco where many Bay Area stations broadcast from.
-
Newspaper vending machines in downtown San Jose.
-
Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who took over the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 and made it the most important paper in his national chain.
-
The Tribune Tower in Oakland, which was the main office for the Oakland Tribune newspaper from 1924 to 2007.
.jpg)
