Committee amends outreach designations and forwards contracts for official and neighborhood periodicals

The Office of Contract Administration presented recommendations for the Board’s annual designation of the official newspaper and outreach periodicals for FY2023–24 under Proposition J and the Administrative Code. OCA said the San Francisco Examiner was the sole responsive bidder for the official newspaper (the Chronicle did not meet the local‑printing requirement) and presented outreach community and neighborhood periodicals—many neighborhoods had only a single responsive bidder under the code’s strict printing‑in‑San Francisco requirements.

Supervisors discussed coverage gaps for the Chinese and Spanish‑speaking communities and moved to amend the outreach neighborhood designations to include additional neighborhoods and publications (for example, adding Sing Tao Daily coverage for Chinatown, Richmond, Sunset, Portola, Excelsior and Tenderloin neighborhoods and adding El Reportero/El Tecolote for Spanish-language outreach in Mission/Excelsior neighborhoods). The deputy city attorney confirmed some publications are eligible only as neighborhood periodicals because of printing location rules.

After public comment the committee voted 3–0 to forward the amended designations and contracts to the full Board with a positive recommendation.