The leadership of El Tecolote, recognized as California's longest-running bilingual Spanish-language newspaper, is firmly rejecting assertions that the historic San Francisco publication is facing an existential crisis or is at risk of shutting down following a wave of significant newsroom departures.
Over the past several months, the Mission District-based newsroom has experienced a substantial reduction in personnel. A total of seven staff members, a count that includes temporary personnel, have stepped down from the publication since March. According to reporting from Mission Local, this series of exits accounted for the majority of the newsroom's working staff.
The turnover culminated in mid-August with the departure of the newspaper's top editorial leader. Former editor-in-chief Erika Carlos announced her resignation, explaining in a public post on LinkedIn that the cumulative loss of so many colleagues created an operational deficit too severe for her to continue in her leadership post.
In response to public concerns regarding the newspaper's future, El Tecolote founder Juan Gonzalez, who has returned to serve as interim editor, insisted that the historic outlet is maintaining stability. Gonzalez emphasized that the publication is doing fine despite the noticeable reduction in staff and has no intention of ceasing its publishing operations.
Gonzalez explicitly stated that shutting down the newspaper is completely off the table, clarifying that there is not even a consideration of closing the publication whatsoever. While Gonzalez noted that he could not address the private specifics surrounding the individual departures of his former colleagues, he confirmed that the organization is actively in the process of hiring a new editor.
The bilingual outlet holds a foundational place in the history of Northern California journalism. Gonzalez established El Tecolote fifty-six years ago while teaching an academic course at San Francisco State University designed to expand Latino representation and participation within the broader field of journalism.
Students enrolled in that university course helped found the paper, naming it El Tecolote, which translates to "the owl." The publication officially launched its first edition in August 1970 and has operated continuously out of San Francisco's Mission District ever since, delivering bilingual reporting focused on the local neighborhood and the broader Latino community.
Despite the paper's long track record, Carlos voiced serious concerns that the recent exodus of personnel could permanently hinder the newsroom's core functions. In her LinkedIn resignation announcement, the former editor-in-chief contended that the recent wave of resignations went far beyond an ordinary staff transition.
Carlos warned that the sudden departure of the majority of the newsroom directly threatens the publication's operational capacity, depletes vital institutional knowledge, and ultimately limits the newspaper's ability to properly serve its readership and community.
In an additional statement sent to SFGATE, Carlos shared further context regarding her departure, explaining that she made the decision to resign after an array of ongoing administrative and workplace issues reached a breaking point over the summer.
Specifically, Carlos pointed out that hiring efforts for two separate newsroom positions had stalled, even though approved funding had already been secured to support both roles for the rest of the year. Carlos characterized the inability of leadership to fill those budgeted vacancies in a timely manner as an entirely preventable problem.
Reflecting on the circumstances that preceded the staff departures, Carlos stressed that establishing more stable employment contracts, implementing prompt recruitment practices, and providing better overall working conditions could have made a meaningful difference in retaining staff members.
A contrasting assessment of the staffing changes was provided by Accíon Latina, the nonprofit organization that works closely alongside El Tecolote. Imelda Carrasco, the executive director of Accíon Latina, pushed back against characterizations framing the recent departures as an organizational emergency.
Carrasco explained via email that describing the current situation as a crisis is inaccurate because three of the seven individuals who departed were fellows whose fixed-term contracts had naturally reached their scheduled end dates. Carrasco affirmed that leadership remains committed to looking ahead and continuing the newspaper's community service with minimal disruption.
The internal staffing challenges at El Tecolote arrive amidst an increasingly difficult economic environment for newsrooms throughout the Bay Area and the state of California as a whole. Local media organizations across both the nonprofit and commercial sectors continue to navigate significant industry headwinds and downsizing.
The broader regional landscape saw further contraction this week as local nonprofit news site The Frisc announced it would cease operations after nine years, while commercial publisher McClatchy Media laid off at least ninety employees across more than a dozen regional newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee and the Modesto Bee.
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