[News] SF Bay View’s not dead! We’ll see you on the web

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The Bay View’s not dead! We’ll see you on the web

You’re looking for the paper – the Bay View in 
print – and you can’t find one since the July 2 
edition. You’re wondering why no one’s told you what’s wrong.

The quick answer is that yes, we ran flat out of 
funds or any source to tap and had to suspend 
printing the paper, at least for now. And that 
tragic decision set so many things in motion we 
haven’t yet been able to get to a lot of the 
basics, like telling our dearest friends and most faithful readers what’s up.

How you can learn more and give us a hand

Meetings: If you’re in the Bay Area – and please 
forward this invitation to Bay Area residents you 
know – come to one of two meetings, in San 
Francisco and Oakland, that Minister of 
Information JR is planning to announce and 
discuss with the community the Bay View’s “next 
steps.” With enough community support, we hope to 
find a way to print the Bay View monthly. We also 
need your help to make 
<http://www.sfbayview.com/>www.sfbayview.com more 
interactive and to campaign for internet access for everybody.

JR explains: “We think it is important for the 
community to be forward thinking when looking at 
the demise of the SF Bay View newspaper print 
edition. We want to come together with organizers 
to discuss the future of this Black led 
alternative independent media crew known as the 
SF Bay View newspaper and discuss some future 
plans that lie on the horizon and get concrete commitments from supporters.

“The meeting is Thursday, July 24, ‘08, 6 p.m., 
at 1095 Market St. #307 off of Seventh in 
downtown San Francisco, by Civic Center BART. All are invited.”

Save the date of Saturday evening, Aug. 9, for 
the Oakland meeting, which will feature a media 
panel and a party along with the grassroots 
discussion and planning. The Black New World, 836 
Pine St., West Oakland, is the place. We’ll be 
looking for all our East Bay readers – everyone’s welcome! More details soon.

I just got two calls – there have been many, as 
you can imagine – one from a young teacher and 
one from an elder, saying how “distraught” they 
and those around them are not to be able to hold 
a Bay View in their hands. I surely feel their 
pain (this is editor Mary Ratcliff); the paper’s 
been my entire life 24/7/365 for over 16 years of 
editing every word in 697 editions – and I’ve loved every minute.

At the top of the home page at 
<http://www.sfbayview.com/>www.sfbayview.com, 
you’ll see the headline 
<http://www.sfbayview.com/News/Display_Front_page/San_Francisco_Bay_View_The_end_of_an_era_the_dawn_of_a_new_day.html>San 
Francisco Bay View: The end of an era, the dawn 
of a new day. Some of my thoughts about the Bay 
View’s transition to publishing online only, at 
least for the moment, are there along with a 
Block Report Radio interview by Minister of 
Information JR with Bay View publisher Willie 
Ratcliff that was broadcast on Flashpoints.

Now it’s your turn: Whether or not you can attend 
the meetings, please email your thoughts and 
suggestions to <mailto:editor at sfbayview.com>editor at sfbayview.com.

Readers in prison: The printed Bay View has 
literally been a lifeline for people without 
internet access and most of all for prisoners. 
Our mail is heavy every day with letters from 
every concentration camp in the country, many 
prisoners saying, “The Bay View keeps me alive.”

Until we can afford to mail the sad news – or, 
hopefully, a monthly paper – to them, you can 
help by telling all the prisoners you talk with 
or write to and ask them to spread the news. Tell 
them we care about them as much as ever, that 
we’ll continue to post their stories and pen pal 
requests on the website (volunteers are badly 
needed to type a huge backlog of requests) and 
that we want to join them in campaigning for 
internet access behind enemy lines.

Eugene Thomas, an amazing young man in a Georgia 
state prison who won his fight to legalize cell 
phones, is now pushing for permission to upgrade 
to phones with internet access. And some federal 
prisons now give prisoners access to the web. The 
prisoners themselves have kicked off this campaign. Let’s follow their lead!

Web advertising and traffic: Whatever 
opportunities the future holds for the Bay View 
and other alternative media will cost money, and 
income for most media, whether in print or 
online, comes primarily from advertising. When we 
had to suspend printing the Bay View, my first 
task was to tell our advertisers the sad news and 
ask them to move their ads to our website. Most 
agreed to do so or at least to consider it.

Knowing very little about web advertising, 
especially how to price it and what options to 
offer, I’m afraid our website, like the print 
edition, could be starved for funds. If you or 
someone you know has expertise in web advertising 
to offer, please email me at 
<mailto:editor at sfbayview.com>editor at sfbayview.com.

Maybe 
<http://www.sfbayview.com/>www.sfbayview.com can 
earn enough to help put the Bay View back in 
print! The traffic to our site, which already 
draws over a million hits a month, is bound to 
increase. You can help build the 
<http://www.sfbayview.com/>www.sfbayview.com 
readership by spreading this Bay View Alert far and wide.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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