Online fundraiser aims to preserve, restore, and relaunch alternative newspaper’s key features.
By Marke B.
After regaining the assets of the Bay Guardian, a new non-profit called the San Francisco Center for Newspaper Preservation (which includes Tim Redmond and me), today launched the “Bring Back the Bay Guardian!“ online fundraising campaign, which aims to raise $120,000.
That money will be used to preserve the existing Bay Guardian archives by storing them in a safe space, donating a complete set of Guardian papers to a professional archival library, and digitizing 50 years’ worth of local progressive news and culture history for public access.
But we’re also planning to revive key Guardian features — like Guardian Clean Slate Endorsements, Best of the Bay, and the GOLDIES Arts Awards — and redesign and relaunch the SFBG website to host new as well as vintage content.
It’s seriously going to be so cool to get all this stuff online (and safely accounted for). There’s everything from early Janis Joplin and the Jimi Hendrix concert ads to ’80s fashion spreads, hard-hitting political analysis to movie reviews of Star Wars and Nashville, restaurant recipes from the 1970s, alt-rock interviews from the 1990s, famous authors from Armistead Maupin and Allen Ginsburg to Rebecca Solnit and Michelle Tea, cartoons by R. Crumb, and oodles of the kind of photography, typography, illustration that will have vintage fans foaming at the mouth.
Even better will be the opportunity to relaunch the Guardian’s signature feature — the Best of the Bay, the first in the country, that celebrated its 40th anniversary last year; the Guardian Clean Slate Endorsements and Voters Guide, especially in this crazy election year; our GOLDIES Arts Awards, which were invaluable in exposing new art to the public and introducing up-and-coming artists, and more.
We’ve got two months to reach our goal — and have a big celebration party — so please contribute and spread the word.
To the folks who would mock Tim and Mark for this project. I, too, disagree with the opinions here in 48 Hill a lot of time. That doesn’t diminish the fact that The Guardian was a force in San Francisco for a long time and should be archived and available, and it’s obvious that the Guardian meant a lot to them both personally. I hope the rude commenters are lucky enough to have something they care about this deeply. Given their prolific commenting here on 48 Hills, I hope they were the first to donate. Should this endeavor fail, they’ll have nothing to fill what appear to be their ample free time.
Lets hope they keep all the Massage ads too!
Oh, and all the Camel spots.
Will the digitized archive include Bay Guardian Classified?
Because if it didn’t work the first time it will definitely work on the second try!!
I’ll be donating to bring back MST3K instead: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k
I can’t wait until the ceremony for transferring custody the Guardian archives to the new permanent repository!
I assume that there will be a solemn procession to mark the significance of the moment?
Yes, we should donate money for a business that clearly believes from the outset that it is not viable,