There’s Hope: Independent Media on the Rise in San Francisco

For years, corporate interests have dominated the media landscape in San Francisco. Our local corporate media pours gas on the flames of right wing narratives, pushing conservative tech and real estate industry talking points nonstop. It makes it very difficult for the stories of working class people, and solutions rooted in evidence instead of manufactured consent, to get the attention they deserve–especially when they are progressive. San Franciscans have paid the price, as the city becomes increasingly hostile to anyone but the rich.

However, an emerging group of media creators has been covering San Francisco through a different lens. And they weren’t all born out of the same progressive movements we’re used to – they’re just San Franciscans pointing out the city government's foibles and new right-wing curve, and connecting with followers on the solutions in affordability, homelessness and corruption. They are free of corporate control and it shows. This includes longstanding projects, new outlets, emerging creators, and brilliant ideas being hatched. They offer a ray of hope – progressive San Francisco is not just alive and well, it’s creative, funny, and resourceful. It’s essential to support this emerging landscape of movement media, and over the last year we’ve focused on connecting and building this community.

For better or for worse, people are moving away from traditional sources for news. Readership and subscribers are down, which has sent the industry and many into an existential crisis as we watch the coverage of Trump’s second administration. Trust in mainstream news is also down – and who can blame readers? From Gaza to the Doom Loop, people are tired of feeling gaslit. More and more people want information from a person or entity with an independent and consistent track record. The outlet that has always stood up to the administration gets cred. The influencer who understands your economic situation better than the Chronicle seems to, and doesn’t talk down to you. That’s where we’ve ended up.

As mainstream media nationally falls under the complete control of billionaires – whether by ownership transfer, extortion, or cowardice – movement media is on the rise in San Francisco and beyond. I haven’t seen anything like it in my three decades in San Francisco. It lays the foundation for exposing billionaire control and winning a better future.

Here’s some of the media on the rise in San Francisco.

New outlets

The Tenderloin Voice brings a desperately needed perspective to the Tenderloin. Launched in 2025 by veterans of the Chronicle, Tenderloin Voice features the stories of people in the Tenderloin community. At a time when business interests, tech billionaires, and real estate vultures want to speak for the TL as they try to pick it to pieces, Tenderloin Voice is essential. The Tenderloin Voice is the first project of the News Relay Network. Let’s hope it succeeds and spreads to other neighborhoods.

Coyote Media Collective is the brainchild of Soleil Ho and Nuala Sawyer, two brilliant journalists who left the Chronicle to start something new that offers an alternative to corporate media:

We’re reporters and podcasters, filmmakers and photographers, opinion columnists and culture critics. We've watched hedge funds and mismanagement destroy the nation’s media ecosystem, and we refuse to believe in our own expendability — or yours.

Inspired by the alt-weeklies of yore, we envisioned an outlet that reflected the complexity and depth of the region we know and love. We serve readers who want to feel more connected to their communities, and who understand that a city’s greatest asset is the everyday people and families living within it. That community is the only way we all survive.

Coyote’s content has been excellent. While corporate media hemmed and hawed about the teacher’s strike, Coyote published “Area Teachers Tired of Bullshit.” Need I say more?

Bay Area Current also came onto the scene in 2025. Founded by members of the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America, “We write from a leftist perspective and we cover stories often ignored in the mainstream press.” Some of the writers have a journalism background, others are local organizers, tenants, students, and artists writing about what they know. During the recent teacher’s strike, Bay Area Current featured articles by educators as well as daily strike updates. They have also featured powerful critiques of tech in the Bay Area. An anti-dote to corporate news, Bay Area Current is not just independent, but rooted in socialist values.

Podcasters and Influencers

The podcast Sad Francisco has emerged as absolutely essential viewing/listening for anyone who cares about working class people in San Francisco. Hosted by activist Toshio Meronek, Sad Francisco tells it like it is and has expanded their content to meet the moment. Doomloop Dispatch is the new kid on the podcasting block, hosted by veteran journalist Kevin Jones and co-host D. Scot Miller. Doomloop features long form interviews with community leaders as they discuss and explode right wing narratives about San Francisco.

Individual influencers are increasingly weighing in from the left. Shit-posters like Real Bay Area Memes, comedians like Mike Evans, advocates like Maddy Clifford, policy wonk CJ Towbridge, satirists like Matcha Mix, and many, many more, offer incisive analysis taking on billionaires and exposing hypocrisy in the halls of power and on the streets of SF. The Phoenix Project – which tracks right wing money in SF – offers a strong research foundation for the coverage, as does the nonprofit Evolve CA which focuses on tax policy and public education.

Old Dogs, New Tricks

In addition to these new outlets join and influencers, existing outlets that have expanded their reach significantly. 48Hills, founded by Bay Guardian’s Tim Redmond, has gone to a whole new level with the addition of brilliant on the spot video coverage by Andrew Brobst. Broke Ass Stuart (BAS) celebrated 20 years, adding more hard hitting political coverage from influencers. El Tecolote, a 50 year, bilingual independent outlet, is a project of Accion Latina, which added Imelda Carrasco as Executive Director and Erika Carlos as El Tecolote editor, and ramping up its people-focused coverage, especially of city politics. San Francisco Public Press continues to publish in depth coverage of controversial issues the corporate media won’t touch. Gazetteer enters its third year with strong independent coverage and a growing base. All of this is on top of ongoing independent coverage from KPFA, KALW, and KPOO’s Harrison Chastang. Meanwhile, Mission Local just got an astonishing $1.5 million grant to ramp up its coverage, making it the most well funded of the local online independent news outlets.

We are witnessing a complete overhaul of how people get their information in this country and in San Francisco. While the takeover of legacy media by billionaires is depressing, the response from the left offers reason for hope. I am inspired by all the independent creators in San Francisco who are not only putting out great content, but are increasingly connecting and collaborating. Be sure to follow and support them.