Media

10 years on, a daily Chronicle 60% lighter; Mercury News shed 66%

Shrinking newspapers: Both papers lost sections, pages and advertisers
This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories. 
 In early May, when the official industry rankings came out, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News touted slight gains in Sunday circulation after years of declines, suggesting that the local newspaper industry just might be coming back. But the number of papers thrown on Bay Area doorsteps tells only part of the story. Even the most optimistic interpretation of readership statistics can’t hide the publications’ anemic page counts. Both papers have shrunk dramatically in the past 10 years.