‘Unforgetting’ Confronts Painful Personal, Political Histories of U.S. and Central America

Difficult and painful history connects gang violence and severe policing in Central America and in the United States, as well as mass migrations of refugees. In his new memoir, “Unforgetting,” Roberto Lovato teases out these connections with research and reporting, but also by telling his own story of coming of age as a U.S.-born child of Salvadoran parents and the stories of his family and friends. Lovato, born and raised in San Francisco, is an educator, journalist and writer. His book “Unforgetting” will be released Sept. 1.

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New Magazine Offers Tribute to San Francisco Subcultures

Some local bookstores carry a colorful magazine that looks like the New Yorker of the west coast. This is the San Franciscan, a new print magazine with a mission to “celebrate the diverse subcultures of San Francisco and the Bay Area through humor and criticism, but always with utmost sincerity and pride.”
 

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As Newspapers Decline, Some Pursue Nonprofit Model

Bay Area reporters recently rallied to call for better working conditions as they continue contract negotiations with their employer, a media group owned by a hedge fund. To get a sense of where the local news industry is headed, we spoke with Dan Kennedy, associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University.

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No Ads? Newsprint? A Discussion of What Shaped the Public Press

San Francisco Public Press Publisher Lila LaHood talks with board chair David Cohn about the ideas — like going ad free and printing a physical newspaper — that would shape how the Public Press operates. “People who know the Public Press trust it in a very deep way, which, you know, you have to earn that trust.” — David Cohn, Public Press board chair

But Why a Radio Station? Michael Stoll of the Public Press Explains It All

San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll talks with Jennifer Waits, who hosts the radio show “Radio Survivor,” about why and how the Public Press launched a low-power FM radio station. 
“We always thought of ourselves as a newspaper based on a public broadcasting model, and now we’re a public broadcaster based on a newspaper based on public broadcasting. We really feel at home in the spirit of it, but the technical and logistical challenges to get a whole radio station set up were enthralling.” — San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll

Looking Back on First 10 Years of the San Francisco Public Press

San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll and Publisher Lila LaHood look back on a decade of working in a nonprofit news operation they founded — including the hurdles they had to overcome to establish nonprofit status for the Public Press — and look to the future. “We are hewing much closer to the ideal of public media, which is to be a public trust, first and foremost, and not try to commoditize the news. You can do different kinds of journalism … if you start out from a place of public service.” —  Michael Stoll, San Francisco Public Press executive director

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Journalist Reflects on Covering 2015 San Francisco Election

Journalist Sara Bloomberg looks back on her coverage of the 2015 San Francisco election and the millions of dollars poured into the campaign, as well as her reporting on the criminalization of homelessness. “Part of handling data in my reporting is to look for errors … there are mistakes, these data sets are human reported. Humans make errors.” — Journalist Sara Bloomberg
 

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Veteran Bay Area Traffic Reporter Talks Shop

Mark Pape, a radio reporter for the Total Traffic & Weather Network, tells it like it is about reporting on traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area, the third-worst commute in the country. Interviewed in what traffic reporters call “the pit, ” an area ringed by computer workstations, large TV monitors and microphones, Pape, who has been on the job for 31 years, talks about the days of yesteryear when road information was gathered via airplane as opposed to what happens now, when data is gleaned from computer screens. 
“Back when I started, we had planes for a lot of different stations. Matter of fact, there would be a reporter in the front seat and another reporter in the back seat.” — Mark Pape