Last week, SF Weekly, the free alternative newspaper, announced that it would cease publication for the foreseeable future. The loss of the paper, which won numerous accolades, including a George K. Polk Award for investigative reporting on the U.S. Navy's handling of nuclear waste at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, has been called incalculable. Its closure echoes the 2014 demise of the Weeklys bitter rival, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and it leaves the city with no alt-weeklies. Yet, there was a time when alt-weeklies, their issues fat with pages of copy and advertising, were a vibrant part of the Bay Area's zeitgeist. We'll talk about the golden age of alt-weeklies and whether newer, online models of local journalism can fill that void.
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