What will happen in SF? Something big

Hearst announced today that the The San Francisco Chronicle might go up for sale if it doesn't get huge and quick concessions from its unions. It even raised the possibility that it might shut down. In some ways we've been waiting for this for years. I think it was at least two years ago, maybe three, that I heard the Chronicle was losing $1 million a week. Ken Doctor estimates here that owner Hearst may have blown through $250 million in losses since buying the Chronicle in 2000.

The Chronicle has had what feel like intractable problems for a long time. Principally, it has a relatively small geographic and population base that's ringed by competitors. Compounding the problem, it's struggled with very high labor costs and other overhead.

What will happen? Nobody knows -- except that it's likely to be big.