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District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick.
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Legal Newspaper Donates Big to Yes on K
By Adriel Hampton
The San Francisco Examiner
The Recorder, a Northern California legal newspaper, appears ready to pounce on the public notices contract up for grabs if Proposition K passes in on the San Francisco ballot. The Recorder — owned by the New York-based American Lawyer Media, Inc. — on Oct. 10 donated $10,000 to the Yes on K campaign, records show. On the same day, Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, the measure’s author, donated $5,957.95 to the campaign.
Evette Davis of No on K was critical of the legal paper’s move to position itself to land the contract.
“I sort of find it curious that a legal newspaper that doesn’t represent the news of the communities would be such a significant contributor to the campaign and I think it proves one of our major points all along — that is, Prop. K opens the door to newspapers that don’t serve the neighborhoods,” Davis said. “It costs a dollar and is read by lawyers. It might as well be a newspaper on the moon.”
Prop. K, put on the ballot by McGoldrick and supervisors Matt Gonzalez, Chris Daly, Aaron Peskin and Tom Ammiano without public hearings, would change the way San Francisco awards its public notices contract.
The contract, currently split between one major paper and several smaller outreach periodicals, is worth about $1 million. Public notices alert the citizenry of contracts up for bid, government meetings and the like, as well as polling places and elections officers during election season. Proposition J of 1994, put on the ballot by signatures, set the current law which requires that the chief public notice newspaper be locally owned and published and have a thrice-weekly circulation of 50,000 copies.
Since the law passed, The Independent, published by the Fang family, has been awarded the contract. The Fangs also publish AsianWeek and The Examiner.
Current law ranks papers based on advertsising price, circulation, cost, minority and female ownership and foreign language content. Proposition K would eliminate the point system and weigh bids based on circulation and price to readers. Under both systems, supervisors can arbitrarily award the contract to any paper they choose.
McGoldrick told The Examiner that any legally adjudicated paper — the county clerk lists 14 such papers — could win the contract. The Independent, The Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle are on that list, as well as The Recorder and a host of other periodicals.
McGoldrick said he doesn’t know why The Recorder would donate money to the campaign.
The Independent has a circulation of 211,000 on Tuesdays, 1,000 on Thursdays and 150,000 on Saturdays. Most of those papers are home delivered. The free paper covers neighborhood news and politics. Half of the approximately $50,000 donated to the No on K campaign comes from The Independent.
The Recorder has a paid subscription of 6,200, spread throughout Northern California and boasts “more than 20,000 readers.” It is distributed to attorneys from Santa Rosa to San Jose, and costs $1 per issue or $290 for a subscription. It is among 23 legal newspapers in a nationwide chain.
Davis said she is concerned that the Yes on K campaign has reported so little spending — $1,015 — even though it has sent out a mailer and produced window signs.
Yes on K campaign manager Doug Comstock, vice-president of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, who worked to pass Prop. J in 1994, said he thinks a more competitive contract would save San Francisco money.
Asked about The Recorder’s contribution, Comstock said he couldn’t speculate on its motives.
“I’ve never spoken with any of them, so I don’t know what their angle is,” Comstock said.
Reach Adriel Hampton at ahampton@examiner.com.
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