Press Club's Christmas Party is Dec. 11

Members and friends of the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club are invited to the Annual Holiday Party, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 11.

The board and annual meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by the party at 7 p.m.

For the second year, the Press Club will hold its holiday party at Chevy's Foster City, 979 Edgewater Blvd.

Bring a donation for the Second Harvest Food Bank and your first drink is on us. Invite your friends and colleagues to join you. It's a great way to introduce them to the Press Club.

You don't need to be a member to attend. Please RSVP your attendance to the Party to penpressclub@comcast.net.

At the annual meeting, ballots will be due for the election of club officers. You can vote by return e-mail or bring your ballot to the Holiday Party at the Foster City Chevy’s on Wednesday, Dec. 11. If not attending the party, please send ballot via: fax (650) 272-0279; e-mail penpressclub@comcast.net or U.S. mail to 4317 Camden Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403.

Here's the 2014 Ballot for officersPresident:

▢ Antonia Ehlers communications manager, Serra High School
▢ ________________________________________________

Vice President:

▢ Kristy Blackburn, adviser, The Oracle, Gunn High School, Palo Alto
▢ ________________________________________________

Treasurer:

▢ Ed Remitz, writer and retired journalism professor
▢ ________________________________________________

Secretary:

▢ Melissa McRobbie, managing editor, Bay City News
▢ ________________________________________________

Marshall Wilson, communications director, San Mateo County, will serve as Immediate Past President in an ex-officio capacity.

Board of Directors: Vote for three. Top two will serve for two-years, the third, for a one year term. Write-in candidates are welcome.

▢ Peter Cleaveland, retired, SAG/AFTRA, ABC
▢ Jon Mays, editor, San Mateo Daily Journal
▢ Dave Price, publisher, The Daily Post
▢ ________________________________________________

Laura Dudnick, senior local editor, Patch.com, will continue to serve as director through 2014. Director emeritus Jack Russell, retired, San Mateo Times, and executive director Darryl Compton continue as ex-officio board members.

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KQED news chief Raul Ramirez dead at 67

Ramirez

Raul Ramirez, executive director of news and public affairs at KQED and previously an editor and reporter at the San Francisco Examiner and Oakland Tribune, died Friday (Nov. 15) at his Berkeley home following a fight with esophageal cancer. He was 67.

The Chronicle said in its obit that Ramirez was a “defining force in Bay Area journalism.”

Ramirez, who was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in July, died days before the ceremony where he was to receive a Distinguished Service to Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists' Northern California chapter.

KQED-FM president and general manager Jo Anne Wallace said in a statement, “Raul’s commitment to journalism ethics was a major influence on all of the work we’ve done at KQED. He insisted on fact-based, accurate reporting that avoided the sensational and, instead, told meaningful stories about the impact of news and issues on the lives of ordinary people.”

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Chron disputes NYT report that it plans to end standalone food section

The Chronicle is disputing a report in this morning’s New York Times that said the San Francisco newspaper plans to stop publishing its standalone food section. The Times said:

“Now, The Chronicle, owned by the Hearst Corporation, is planning to eliminate its stand-alone food section and integrate it into a single lifestyle section — tentatively titled “Artisan” — with material from other parts of the newspaper, including the home section, according to employees who have been told of the plans.

“Although the merger is set to take place by February, the decision has not been publicly announced. Staff members of the newspaper, who spoke to The New York Times about the plan, insisted on anonymity because they said they feared reprisals for disclosing it.”

Chronicle Managing Editor Audrey Cooper denied the Times report and said the Chron plans to “increase our investment in terms of digital and print offering.” Cooper writes:

“We are exploring several opportunities, testing them with readers and conducting independent research to make sure we're delivering what our customers need and want. Once we decide on a path, we will make sure to celebrate it — just as we celebrate the amazing Northern California food culture.

"I'd love to tell everyone right now what we're going to do. The truth is that we haven't decided it yet. But I can tell everyone unequivocally that our top priority is to continue doing the nation's best coverage of Northern California food and wine."

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Press Club board meets tonight (Nov. 13)

The Press Club's board will meet tonight at 6:30 at the Daily Journal, 800 S. Claremont St., Ste. 210, and here's a look some of the items on the agenda:

• High School Boot Camp Debrief: What worked; what didn't; what can be changed for 2014

• Newsletter content

• New Board Member Update

• Monthly vs. Quarterly meetings for 2014?

•  Getting an intern for the website and social media

• Discussion of slate of officers for 2014. Marshall Wilson says he will not seek re-election as president.

All members are invited to attend the monthly board meetings.

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Singleton retiring from MediaNews Group

Singleton

William Dean Singleton, chairman of Mercury News owner MediaNews Group, is retiring as chairman of the company and as publisher of the Denver Post.

Singleton, 62, co-founded MediaNews in 1984 with Richard B. Scudder, and it grew to become the country's second largest newspaper company as measured by daily circulation.

After MediaNews went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, and Alden Global Capital became a major shareholder of the company, Singleton left the position of CEO in January 2011 but remained as chairman and publisher of the Denver newspaper. At the same time, his heir apparent, company president Jody Lodovic, stepped down.

Jon Paton, head of Digital First Media, now oversees MediaNews and the Journal Register chain.

MediaNews Group owns the Bay Area News Group chain of newspapers and websites, which include the Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Mercury News, Palo Alto Daily News, San Mateo County Times, Marin Independent Journal and other dailies.

Mac Tully, formerly head of the Bay Area News Group, will take over Singleton's job as publisher of the Denver Post.

Singleton said that multiple sclerosis, a condition he was diagnosed with 26 years ago, has slowed him physically.

"Fighting MS has actually caused me to be healthier in some aspects of my life," he said. "But it makes it more difficult to do the things you want to do."

Singleton said he will spend more time with his family and at his Colorado cattle ranches.

(Photo credit: Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

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Press Club's high school boot camp is Friday

The Press Club's High School Journalism Boot Camp is this Friday at the College of San Mateo, and high schools from throughout the area are bringing students to this annual event.

Williams

The guest speaker is Martyn Williams, a multimedia journalist covering technology and business news in the San Francisco Bay Area. From 1995 to 2011 the native of the United Kingdom was based in Japan and reported on tech stories from across Asia.

During the 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster he "refocused his energy on broadcasting information about the nation's human tragedy," according to Time Magazine, "becoming the handle of record for outsiders who want to know more about the crisis gripping Japan."

Time named his Twitter feed as one of the "140 Best" of 2011.

 He has traveled extensively, including a 2002 trip to North Korea where he learned how isolated its citizens were from outside information. In 2010 he turned an interest in North Korea into a website focusing on North Korea's slow adoption of technology.

In 2011-12 he was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. The fellowship, awarded to only 20 journalists a year, allowed him to work on projects related to innovation in journalism and tools allowing news organizations to securely connect with citizens in authoritarian countries.

Here's the schedule for the boot camp.

12:30 pm Registration and Refreshments 

12:45 pm Welcome and Student Panel

• Carlmont High School: Sabrina Leung, Editorial Director 
• East Side Prep: Vanessa Martinez, Features page editor, and Amanda Russell, In-Dept page co-editor
• Sequoia High School: Simon Greenhill, Editor-in-Chief, and Araceli Efigenio, Feature Editor 
• Aragon: Brandon Liu and Annika Ulrich, Editors-in-chief 
• Gunn: Nabeel Chollampat, News Editor, and Mitch Donat, Managing Editor 

2 – 2:50 and 3-3:50 pm Breakout Sessions News 

• Photography (REPEATED) Nic Coury and others, Bay Area Press Photographers Association 
• Writing Leads that Grab the Reader (REPEATED) Michelle Carter, former Managing Editor San Mateo Times 
• Online Journalism: Multimedia Reporting (REPEATED) Laura Dudnick, Patch Editor 
• Clean Your Copy: Tips to Improve Your Style (REPEATED) Leslie Guevarra, former Deputy Managing Editor, San Francisco Chronicle; Asian American Journalists Association, Bay Area Chapter founding member 
• Breaking News: Get the Story as it Happens John Cote, reporter, San Francisco Chronicle 
• Headlines and Layout that Engage Readers (REPEATED) Dave Price, Editor, Daily Post Column Writing, Caille Millner, Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle 
• Transition to College Journalism (REPEATED) Ed Remitz, former Journalism instructor, College of San Mateo Margaret Baum, Kayla Figard, Yasmine Mahmoud, students 
• Careers in Journalism (REPEATED) Antonia Ehlers, former Journalist, Communications Manager Serra High School 
• Newspaper Critiques (Send copies of your current paper to be critiqued) Press Club Members 
• Advisers Gathering Kristy Blackburn, Henry M. Gunn High School

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2 arrested in robbery of KRON crew

The Bay Area News Group reports that two men have been arrested in connection with an attempted robbery of a KRON 4 news crew Friday night in San Francisco.

Police said the KRON 4 crew was at Third Street and La Salle Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview district when the robbery was reported around 7:58 p.m. A short time later, a person with a gunshot wound arrived at San Francisco General Hospital.

On the station's 11 p.m. newscast, KRON 4 anchor Pam Moore read a statement saying journalist Jeff Bush had been the target of the robbery.

According to Moore, Bush was approached by two armed men who demanded his computer and photographic equipment.

While Bush immediately surrendered the equipment and took cover, an unidentified security guard that was with Bush fired on the robbers, striking one in the leg, Moore said.

No one else was injured.

Armani McFarland, 19, of San Francisco was arrested on suspicion of robbery, conspiracy and possession of a firearm. His accomplice, John Woods, 19, also of San Francisco, was arrested on suspicion of robbery and conspiracy, said Danielle Newman with the San Francisco Police Department.

Both men are in custody.

One of the teens was treated Friday night at San Francisco General Hospital for a non-life-threatening gunshot injury he sustained during a shootout with a security guard that accompanied the news crew, but Newman did not specify who it was that was shot.

The incident is the latest in a series of brazen robberies targeting media professionals in the Bay Area, most of which have taken place in Oakland.

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