San Francisco latest to take aim at free newspapers

Another proposed Bay Area law, making it difficult to distribute free newspapers, would mainly affect the San Francisco Examiner which distributes daily copies to about 120,000 residences, notes Grumpy Editor.

As proposed by San Francisco supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the latest effort to ban unwanted deliveries of free newspapers comes with high fines:  $100 a residence for the first offense, $200 for the second violation and $500 thereafter.

That would make any publisher shudder.

The San Francisco proposal follows a similar one by a state delegate in Maryland, mainly affecting the Baltimore Examiner --- also free and that state’s largest daily with 230,000 copies delivered to homes.

In both cases, politicians say the unsolicited papers clutter driveways.

However, the proposed laws would not apply to newspapers with paid subscriptions tossed onto those same driveways.

Both San Francisco and Baltimore newspapers are part of Denver-based Clarity Media Group, financier Philip Anschutz's chain of free daily newspapers and Examiner.com local-news websites.  The company in 2004 bought the old San Francisco Examiner --- once the flagship of the Hearst newspaper chain  --- and converted it into a free tabloid.

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

No economic boost for his state:  With lofty gasoline prices at the pump and U.S. vehicle sales expected to drop this year, Rep. John Dingell, (D., Mich.) wants to slap a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline in efforts to cut consumption.  Such action likely would cut back vehicle production further in his state, home to the Big Three automakers…Some news outlets, confused over a Vegas Man Paints Car Like Police Cruiser headline over a wire service report, linked it to the wrong state.  The item came from Las Vegas, New Mexico, not Nevada…Speaking of Las Vegas (the Nevada one), PR people at a major hotel-casino are touting its “refined, elegant and boldly designed” seafood buffet as the only one in Sin City.  Looks like they don’t get out much.  There are 12 other nearby major hotel-casinos that feature seafood buffets --- most at lower prices…True to form, another anniversary was remembered by print/broadcast media when the “My Lai massacre” 40 years ago was recycled Monday…Getting even more coverage this week was the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq with mention that “the 4,000th American death is drawing near” --- a media prediction that never would have made into type or airtime during World War II or Korean War…Most newsrooms are untidy.  But at the Los Angeles Times, already with some clutter, it wasn’t messy enough.  So additional paper, books and assorted junk were added to spruce up things when the newspaper became the set for “The Soloist,” a film in production...CNN Thursday ran footage on the Coast Guard's efforts in spotting semi-submersibles used by drug smugglers, a subject covered by Grumpy Editor on Feb. 13.