B.A.R. Marks 45 Years, Looks Ahead

Forty-five years ago this month, the Bay Area Reporter started when Bob Ross - chef, Tavern Guild president, and B.A.R. culture insider - launched the paper with business partner Paul Bentley. The first issue hit the streets on April 2, 1971.

Since then, the paper's gone from Ross pasting up the pages by hand and delivering papers to local bars to a newspaper that has 120,000 readers online and in print every week.

More changes are on the way in the next few months.

Michael Yamashita, the current publisher, said, "Without going into too many details," the B.A.R.'s redesigning the print edition and its website. It's been six years since either has had its look updated.

"This is the first time we're trying to make a significant change in the appearance of the newspaper," he said.

Yamashita said there would be changes to the page size and layout in the print edition.

He said since the last redesign "there have been innovations in printing that are more attractive and more cost-efficient. We're taking the opportunity to make the change."

The switch will involve "some cost savings," Yamashita said, "but more importantly, it will allow us to do more in print that we can't do now."

Additionally, he said, printing presses are "more sophisticated now, and the current layout of the paper cannot be done on these new presses."

As for the website, it will be "completely redesigned, and hopefully improved," Yamashita said. He couldn't yet say what the new site would look like. "The designer has not sent in their final mockups."

The changes will be unveiled this summer after Pride.

Challenges

Like the LGBT community, the B.A.R. has seen many tests over the past five decades, from the AIDS epidemic to adjusting to how people communicate.

Asked what it says that the B.A.R. is still publishing after all the trials the paper and the community have faced, Yamashita said, "I think foremost it speaks to the professionalism, dedication, and talent of the staff we've been fortunate to have. They are very talented people who've worked for the B.A.R. for innumerable years, and their connections to and knowledge of the community are the backbone of our success. Also, I think it speaks to the vibrancy and resilience of our community through all the ups and downs, all the good times and bad times, it's not been an easy struggle."

He said that among other challenges ahead, more attention needs to be paid to "the aging LGBT community, and all the infrastructure that will provide for affordable, safe, and sensitive housing and services for our aging population."

Another goal is "to cover the full spectrum of what life is like for our community," Yamashita said.

As with most LGBT publications, he said the B.A.R.'s had to "overcome the perception that we are geared toward a very narrow readership, which is white gay men, when in fact, we try very hard to allow the news to dictate our coverage. We go out of our way to make sure everyone, including minorities" and people of different age groups are included, as well as "people of different experiences who identify with our community."

In an email, Tiffany Woods, the program manager for transgender services at Tri-City Health Center in Fremont , said, "I picked up my first B.A.R. in 1990 after being out as a trans woman for six months."

Since then, Woods said, "We both have come a long way," and the paper "has chronicled the LGBTQ community's quest for equal rights, civil rights, dignity, and inclusion; the victories, losses, immense tragedies and jubilations, while always telling the stories of those who lived them, made them happen, the people most affected by the events and decisions."

Among other things, she commended the paper's coverage of the East Bay and of trans issues, including the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance in Oakland.

However, Woods said she'd like to see a dedicated East Bay section, as well as more opinion pieces from community leaders in the region.

Asked about why the B.A.R. is still needed, Yamashita said, "Mainstream news outlets do certainly carry gay news, but that will never be a substitute for local gay community newspapers covering their own community. ... As long as there are people in the world who choose to hate, discriminate, outlaw or kill us as a matter of opinion or policy, we will be here, but not only to fight for our rights but also to improve our own community."

That includes keeping politicians "accountable" and ensuring LGBT nonprofits "are run efficiently and are solvent," he said.

John Darby, 89, a gay San Francisco resident who's been reading the B.A.R. since its debut, echoed Yamashita's comments. He said he's still reading it because "I learn things from it that I never learn in the mainstream press. I like to know what's going on in the gay world."