A new free daily newspaper started today (May 3) in San Francisco, launched by the former publishers of the Palo Alto Daily News and the Daily News Group of free dailies.
Dave Price and Jim Pavelich — who sold the Daily News Group last year to Knight Ridder — a have started the San Francisco Daily. The first issue was delivered this morning by hand to San Francisco residents and business people by Price, Pavelich and their staff eight people. In the photo above, Pavelich discusses the paper with a reader on Steiner Street.
The SF Daily is free and will be published Monday through Friday. The paper is initially being circulated in the Marina, Chestnut, Cow Hollow, North Beach and Fillmore neighborhoods.
“Our focus is on local news — what’s happening in our neighborhoods — but we also want to include enough news from the rest of the world to make the SF Daily a one-stop shop for people who want to be up-to-date,” said Price. “We don’t have a political agenda or a cause. Our purpose is to provide useful, unbiased information while leaving our readers with a smile.”
The first issue today was eight pages. Price predicts it will remain that size for a while until the paper develops an advertising base.
Price and Pavelich each started free daily newspapers in Colorado in the 1980s. In 1995, they launched the Palo Alto Daily News, which grew over time and spawned sister papers in San Mateo, Redwood City, Los Gatos, Burlingame and the East Bay.
Price and Pavelich sold the Daily News Group last year and, after a few months off, decided to try the same concept in San Francisco. Joining them as a partner in the paper is their former distribution manager at those papers, Amando Mendoza.
The SF Daily’s office is located at 2211 Lombard St. and the number is (415) 346-8282.
In this photo, Realtor Lad Wilson, one of the paper’s first advertisers, holds a t-shirt the founders printed for the launch.
[E&P: Free daily launches in San Francisco] [AP: New paper has initial 5,000 circulation] [Bay City News Service: New paper’s staff passes out first edition by hand]