The San Francisco Media Company suddenly and with no notice shut down the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the city by the Bay’s alternative newspaper for decades.

The decision was supposedly based on the failure of the Guardian to achieve financial viability in a difficult market for print media, but appeared to abruptly cut short a revitalization effort underway before it even had much of a chance to get going.

The shut down was strangely sudden, with the SFBG site ripped down and staff escorted out by private security, without any notice or an opportunity for closure and a celebration of the long-lived alternative newspaper’s legacy with its devoted readers.

Many Bay Area media watchers had predicted this would occur as it seemed extremely strange for one media company to attempt to operate two different alternative newspapers in the same city, and it was clear the SF Weekly was the preferred product of the management company.

Former Guardian staff are said to be hatching plans to resurrect the Bay Guardian in some form. You can join their community at (and we’re not kidding), the new Guardian-In-Exile Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/guardianinexile

2016 update: The Bay Guardian has relaunched in partial online form at (as always) www.sfbg.com