Theft
In June, the Chronicle ran a good story about a woman who discovered—and pursued—the person who had stolen her identity. It is engaging to read and a lucky score for the Chronicle, a story like that, one that unfolds cinematically and neatly. There are advantages to being the only show in town, as far as full-fledged newspapers are concerned. Where else might we have heard this story, if not the Chronicle? The Examiner wouldn’t set aside the column space to do the story justice; local television wouldn’t have the minutes to spare; the blogs have to deal with the dumb rule that everything has to be short; and, frankly, there are no magazines in town that would have managed to fit the story into their pages–it’s not “big” enough to warrant a feature, but too long to cram into a short front-of-the-book piece (although, if following the trail of the identity thief meant you stopped at The City’s 10 Best Places to Eat/Shop/Fall in Love, things might be different).
Maybe there’s room for some other kind of publication that could produce stories like this.
It was written by Mike Weiss. Three months earlier, Weiss wrote about a waitress and bartender who stopped a man from drugging his date. But Weiss doesn’t only write about regular people outwitting the criminal element. He’s one of the best features writers at the Chronicle, possibly the best. He certainly seemed to have free reign for a reporter. His beat covered a little of everything in the Bay Area: San Francisco General Hospital, Gavin Newsom, passion, unsolved crime, solved crime, ash scattering, casualty notification officers, intelligent design, and Duarte’s olallieberry pies, among other things. In short, he wrote what we vaguely call human interest stories, what editors even more vaguely call enterprise reporting, but what anyone who wants to be a reporter and actually likes to write dreams of getting paid to do–the closest thing around to the old Joseph Mitchell kind of reporting, the closest to the full-steam-ahead Talk of the Town piece.
So should it have come as a surprise that he’s part of the Chronicle‘s Summertime 2007 housecleaning? Maybe not, but it’s too bad for those who bother to read what’s left of the Chronicle.
Frances Dinkelspiel posted a list of what appears to be all the staff who are leaving the Chronicle this summer. Besides Weiss, some of the others who I’m disappointed to see go include Anna Badkhen (now at the Globe), David Lazarus (going to the LA Times), Keay Davidson, Edward Epstein, Glen Martin, and what looks to be a significant chunk of the photo staff.
Only Catherine Bigelow and David Lazarus really got to say goodbye to their readers, through their columns. Mike Weiss used to have a column, too. And for that, he wrote his own farewell, six years ago. But there was an earlier column, on the 10th anniversary of the 1989 earthquake. He was in Candlestick Park when it struck. He wrote that all in attendance cheered when it was over. It was about close calls and survival.
“We had an opportunity to show what we were made of,” he wrote, “and we did. San Francisco survived to bicker another day. You and I are alive. It doesn’t get any better.”
The whole list after the jump.
Anna Badkhen, reporter
Colleen Benson, business editorial assistant
Catherine Bigelow, society columnist
Darryl Bush, photographer
Mark Camps, reporter sports
Neva Chonin, columnist features
Rob Collier, reporter
Karola Saekel Craib, reporter food
Will Crain, copy editor
Janine DeFao, reporter
Christine Delsol, deputy travel editor
Rick Delvecchio, reporter
Keay Davidson, science reporter
Ed Epstein, reporter Washington bureau
Chris Feldhorn, copy editor
David Finkelstein, editorial assistant metro desks
Dan Fost, technology reporter
Louis Freedberg, columnist
Penni
Blake Gray, wine reporter
Jessica Guynn, senior technology reporter
Patrick Hoge, reporter
Vanessa Hua, reporter, demographics team
Fran Irwin, copy editor food
Lance Jackson, graphic artist
Jason Johnson, reporter
Heather Jones, copy editor
Daniel King, editorial assistant features
Marshall Kirkland, Sacramento bureau editorial assistant
Christina Koci-Hernandez, photographer
David Lazarus, columnist business
Ilene Lelchuck, reporter, demographics
Greg Lucas, Sacramento bureau reporter
Kevin Lynch, reporter sports
Liz Mangelsdorf, photographer
Glen Martin, reporter, environmental issues
Mark Martin, Sacramento bureau reporter
Ross McKeon, reporter, Sharks, NHL
Scott Mattoon, nation/world editor
Laura Perkins, research librarian
Suzanne Pullen, reporter, ChronWatch
Ed Rachels, graphic artist
Rick Radin, copy editor
Wanda Ravernell, copy editor features
Joan Ryan, columnist
Steve Sande, features editorial assistant
Pia Sarkar, business reporter
Anne Schrager, photo tech
Kathy Seligman, features writer
Joe Shoulak, info graphics artist
Chuck Squatriglia, reporter
Thor Swift, photo tech
Kat Wade, photographer
Diana Walsh, reporter
Michael Weiss, features writer
Filed under: crime, dissipation, journalism, life, San Francisco, talent, unfortunate
Tags: Bay Area, Chron, good writing, newsom
