Berkeley Daily Planet

Infobox Newspaper
name = Berkeley Daily Planet


caption =
type = Semi-weekly newspaper
format = Tabloid
foundation = April 7, 1999
ceased publication =
price =
owners = Independent
publisher =
editor = Becky O'Mally
language =
circulation =
headquarters = 3023A Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94705
United States
ISSN =
website = [http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/ berkeleydailyplanet.com]

The "Berkeley Daily Planet" is a free, twice-weekly newspaper published in Berkeley, California.

In the Bay Area where politics typically runs between liberal and activist progressives, the Berkeley Daily Planet along with the San Francisco Bay View, San Francisco Bay Guardian are powerful progressive political forces offering endorsements of candidates and publishing of activities.

The Berkeley Daily Planet provides consistent coverage of City Council meetings, as well as other official city functions and commissions. The "Planet" distinguishes itself from other local papers in its detailed coverage of local land use issues in the city.

History

The Berkeley Daily Planet was founded April 7, 1999 by a group of journalists and Stanford MBAs with funding from outside investors, according to a March 26, 1999 story in the [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/03/26/MN92249.DTL&hw=berkeley+daily+planet&sn=001&sc=1000 San Francisco Chronicle] . According to that article, the idea of calling the paper the Berkeley Daily Planet came from one of the MBAs, Dave Danforth. The [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/04/08/MN51660.DTL&hw=berkeley+daily+planet&sn=003&sc=568 Chronicle] on April 8, 1999 reported that the new paper "quickly fell under a cloud when it was discovered that the paper's classified ads were taken from other newspapers." The Chronicle quoted attorneys as saying the practice of plagiarizing ads was questionable on copyright grounds and might constitute an unfair business practice, but no legal action was taken. In September 2000, the Daily Planet's owners, venture capitalists doing business as Bigfoot Media, started a second free daily, the San Mateo Daily Journal.

On November 22, 2002, the Berkeley Daily Planet folded. "Employees arrived at work this morning only to learn the newspaper's board of directors had decided to shutter the paper because of continuing financial losses," the [http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=10353 Daily Californian] wrote in its November 22, 2002 issue. The Daily Cal noted that the closing wasn't a surprise and that the Los Angeles Times reported in January 2002 that the Daily Planet hadn't made a profit since its inception in 1999.

On April 1, 2003, Becky and Michael O'Mally -- described by the [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/02/BA173160.DTL Chronicle] as a "liberal Berkeley couple who are grandparents and longtime activists" -- began publishing the Berkeley Daily Planet again, but only twice a week, Tuesday and Friday. However, they kept the word "Daily" in the paper's name.

Since the O'Mallys restarted the Planet with Michael O'Mally as publisher, Becky O'Mally as executive editor and Michael Howerton as managing editor, it has won a number of awards from the California Newspaper Publishers' Association and other organizations, including first prizes for its opinion page, which publishes lengthy reader-written commentaries, and the editorial cartoons of Justin DeFreitas.

Current Owners

Becky O'Mally, the executive editor and opinion page editor, worked in the civil rights and anti-war movements in Ann Arbor in the 1960s and early 1970s. She was a reporter and editor for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Pacific News Service in the late 1970s while attending law school. After passing the California Bar, she wrote articles for magazines, including The Nation and Mother Jones, and was on the staff of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Her husband Michael O'Mally,now the Planet's publisher, is a former faculty member in the University of California's computer science department whose primary research was in the field of text-to-speech conversion technology. The couple founded a company in the early 1980s, Berkeley Speech Technologies, which developed commercial text-to-speech software and hardware. They sold it to a Belgian speech technology corporation,Lernout & Hauspie,in 1996. After the speech company was sold, Becky O'Mally served on Berkeley's Landmarks Preservation Commission for 7 years, resigning after taking over the editor's job at the Planet.

In August 2006, she received harsh criticisms for her decision to publish a letter, later characterized by some readers as an anti-Semitic diatribe, in the opinion section of the Planet, which is open to all points of view without censorship. It was a response from an Iranian student to Israel's invasion of Lebanon, and included his charge that Jews were to blame for the Holocaust. Two open letters containing criticisms were sent to Ms. O'Mally by local politicians and Jewish leaders and were published in the August 11th issue of the Daily Planet. Johnson, Chip. [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/09/01/BAGKPKTI011.DTL "Why did Berkeley paper run anti-Jewish column?"] , "San Francisco Chronicle", September 1, 2006.] They accused O'Mally of refusing to meet with the signers of the Jewish leaders'letter to discuss her decision to publish the letter from the Iranian student. She denied the charge in an editorial, saying that she had never spoken to or otherwise communicated with any of the signers before receiving the letter and that she was willing to meet with any or all of them. She made several more open offers to meet, both communicated via email and published as Planet editorials, but none of the signers had yet accepted her offer as of September 27, 2006. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/controversy.Some critics tried to organize a boycott of the paper's advertising, but their campaign was largely unsuccessful.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/ "Berkeley Daily Planet" Website]

* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/03/26/MN92249.DTL&hw=berkeley+daily+planet&sn=001&sc=1000 Publishers hope Berkeley has space for a new tabloid]

* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/11/23/BA68904.DTL&hw=berkeley+daily+planet&sn=002&sc=996 Berkeley Daily Planet ends publication; Closing comes as surprise]

* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/04/08/MN51660.DTL&hw=berkeley+daily+planet&sn=003&sc=568 Berkeley Daily Planets' Debut is Filled with Gravity; New Berkeley tabloid criticized because it lifted classified ads]

* [http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=10353 Daily Cal: Breaking News: Daily Planet Folds]

* [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/02/BA173160.DTL Berkeley Daily Planet rises again; Preservationist couple revive independent paper -- twice a week]