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The San Francisco Examiner is a daily newspaper in San Francisco, California, where it has been published continuously since 1865, beginning with the name The Daily Examiner.
William Randolph Hearst took over The Daily Examiner in 1887 (at age 23) from his father, George Hearst, who by some accounts is said to have accepted it as payment for a gambling debt. The paper was subsequently renamed the San Francisco Examiner. Under Hearst, the paper's popularity increased greatly, with the help of such writers as Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and the San Francisco-born Jack London. Sales were helped by the Examiner's version of yellow journalism, printing scandal and satire, as well as helping build support for the Spanish American war and the annexation of the Philippines.
After the great earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed much of San Francisco, the San Francisco Examiner and its rivals, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Call brought out a joint edition.
For 35 years starting in 1965 the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner operated under a Joint Operating Agreement whereby the Chronicle published a morning paper and the Examiner published in the afternoon.
In 2000, Ted Fang and his mother Florence Fang obtained the Examiner name, its archives, 35 delivery trucks and a subsidy of $66 million (over three years) as part of the Hearst Corporation's acquisition of the Chronicle. The last day the Hearst Corporation published the Examiner was November 21, 2000.
On September 12, 2001, the front page of the Examiner featured a photo of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on fire as the result of the September 11, 2001, attacks, and the accompanying headline read: "BASTARDS! A Changed America." The edition quickly became a collector's item.
On February 24, 2003, the Examiner switched from a broadsheet to a tabloid and free daily newspaper. Three days before the switch, the Fangs laid off 40 staffers in the paper's circulation and news departments. The switch to a free tabloid was made easier by the fact that a profitable free tabloid, the Palo Alto Daily News, was operating just 20 miles south of San Francisco, providing a model the Examiner could copy.
On February 19, 2004, Denver, Colorado-based billionaire Philip Anschutz purchased the Examiner and its printing plant for an estimated $20 million. His new company, Clarity Media Group, launched the Washington Examiner in 2005 and Baltimore Examiner in April 2006.
A redesign of three newspapers was completed in 2006 by Robb Montgomery.
External link
Newspapers of California | San Francisco Bay Area newspapers | Free daily newspapers
"San Francisco Examiner"