SF Chronicle Hopes Incubator Will ‘Turn Around Legacy Media Company’

By: Rachele Kanigel | Media Shift

After two decades of being pummeled by savvy tech companies that have stolen its readers, its advertisers and perhaps even its place as the leading media company in town, the San Francisco Chronicle has decided to fight innovation with innovation. The Hearst-owned newspaper is launching an off-site startup-style incubator designed to retrain and reinvigorate the staff and ultimately save the news organization from extinction.

“The idea of the incubator is obviously inspired by business practices of companies that have been successful in our local economy and using modern approaches to this disrupted economy that we are in,” said Audrey Cooper, who cooked up the concept last fall, just a few months after becoming the first female managing editor in the paper’s 148-year history. “We’re trying to use this to turn around a legacy media company.”