Phil Bronstein

Last updated
Phil Bronstein
PhilBronstein01.jpg
BornOctober 4, 1950 (1950-10-04) (age 72)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
CitizenshipUSA
Occupation(s)Executive Chair, Center for Investigative Reporting
Known forJournalism
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1998;div. 2004)​
Christine Borders
​
​
(m. 2006)​
Children3

Phil Bronstein (born October 4, 1950) is an American journalist and editor. He serves as executive chair of the board for the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, California. [1] He is best known for his work as a war correspondent and investigative journalist. [2] In 1986, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the fall of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. [3] Later, he held leadership positions with the San Francisco Examiner , San Francisco Chronicle , and Hearst Newspapers Corporation. [4]

Contents

Early life

Bronstein was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 4, 1950. [2] He is the father of Roan Joseph Bronstein. [4]

As a child, Bronstein's family moved frequently. [2] Much of his youth was spent in Montreal, Canada. [5] Eventually, he settled in California. Bronstein attended but did not graduate from the University of California, Davis. [6] While at Davis, he got his first taste of journalism. He wrote movie reviews for the school paper. [2]

Career

Bronstein's first professional job was as a reporter for KQED-TV in San Francisco. [2] In 1980, The San Francisco Examiner hired him as a beat reporter. [4] He went on to report from conflict areas around the world as a foreign correspondent for eight years, such as Peru, the Middle East, El Salvador and the Philippines. [7]

In 1991, Bronstein was promoted to the executive editor position at the Examiner. [4] [8] He held that position until 2000. When an alligator escaped into a city lake in 1996, Bronstein arrived in scuba gear to assist with the capture, but police turned him away. [5]

Bronstein was senior vice president and executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle before serving as executive chairman of the board for the Center for Investigative Reporting. PHIL BRONSTEIN.jpg
Bronstein was senior vice president and executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle before serving as executive chairman of the board for the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Hearst Corporation, the parent company of the Examiner, bought the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000. The Chronicle was the other major daily paper for the San Francisco Bay Area. [7] [9] Hearst already owned the Examiner and chose to merge the two newsrooms. [9] Bronstein became senior vice president and executive editor of the Chronicle in November 2000. [10] Bronstein was editor after the merger, which occurred at the same time as a general decline in the newspaper industry, making the job even more difficult. [11] Bronstein made staffing changes, created new features, and attempted to bring the Chronicle into the Internet age, all while preserving the Bay Area cultural viewpoint. [11] In the first two years after the merger, staff was reduced from 520 to 485 and there was less content within the daily paper. [11]

In January 2008, Hearst Corporation announced Bronstein as editor-at-large for both the Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers. [10] In his new role, Bronstein wrote a weekly column for the Chronicle. [7] He also wrote blog entries for SFGate.com. [7] At the Chronicle, he was replaced as editor by Arizona Republic editor Ward Bushee. [12]

Bronstein left Hearst Newspapers and the Chronicle in March 2012. [12] He had been named chairman of the board for the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2011. [13] Upon leaving the Chronicle, his role at the Center expanded. [3]

Personal life

Bronstein married actress Sharon Stone on February 14, 1998. [14] They were unable to conceive children as Stone suffered from an autoimmune disease, resulting in three miscarriages. [15] They adopted a baby son, Roan Joseph Bronstein in 2000. [16] The couple separated in 2003. [17] They completed their divorce on January 29, 2004. [4] At first, Stone and Bronstein shared joint custody of their adopted son, Roan. [18] In 2008, a judge gave Bronstein full custody of their son. [18]

In 2001, Bronstein was attacked by a Komodo dragon at the Los Angeles Zoo. He was on a private tour, and a keeper had invited him into the enclosure. [2] Bronstein was bitten on his bare foot, as the keeper had told him to take off his white shoes and socks, which the keeper stated could excite the Komodo dragon as they were the same color as the white rats the zoo fed the dragon. [19] [20] Although he escaped, Bronstein needed to have several tendons in his foot reattached surgically. [21]

In 2006, Bronstein married Christine Borders, the daughter of Borders Book Store co-founder Louis Borders. She is the founder of "A Band of Wives," a social network for women. [22] The couple have two children. [23] [24]

Awards and recognition

In 1986, Bronstein was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos, long-standing dictator of the Philippines. [3] [7] Bronstein's work in the Philippines also earned him awards from the Associated Press, the Overseas Press Club, the World Affairs Council, and the Media Alliance. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hearst Communications</span> American multinational mass media conglomerate group

Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Komodo dragon</span> Largest living species of lizard

The Komodo dragon, also known as the Komodo monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae that is endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. It is the largest extant species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of 3 m (9.8 ft), and weighing up to 70 kg (150 lb).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbionese Liberation Army</span> American terrorist organization (1973 - 1975)

The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army was a small, American far-left militant organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and wider American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles. The three surviving fugitives recruited new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Stone</span> American actress

Sharon Vonne Stone is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a nomination for an Academy Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995 and was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patty Hearst</span> American kidnapping victim (born 1954)

Patricia Campbell Hearst is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.

<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> American daily newspaper

The San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. It is the only major daily paper covering the city and county of San Francisco.

George Randolph Hearst Jr. was an American businessman who served as the chairman of the board of the Hearst Corporation from 1996 through to his death in 2012, succeeding his uncle Randolph Apperson Hearst. He was a director at the company for over forty years.

<i>Los Angeles Herald Examiner</i> American newspaper in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Herald Examiner was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. It was formed when the afternoon Herald-Express and the morning Los Angeles Examiner, both of which were published there since the turn of the 20th century, merged in 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Talbot</span> American investigative journalist and editor

David Talbot is an American journalist, author, activist and independent historian. Talbot is known for his books about the "hidden history" of U.S. power and the liberal movements to change America, as well as his public advocacy. He was also the founder and former editor-in-chief of the pioneering web magazine, Salon.

David Weir is a journalist, author, and co-founder and former Executive Director of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

<i>The San Francisco Call</i> American newspaper

The San Francisco Call ( Post ) was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called The San Francisco Call & Post, the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, and the News-Call Bulletin before the name was finally retired after the business was purchased by the San Francisco Examiner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronicle Publishing Company</span> Print and broadcast media corporation

The Chronicle Publishing Company was a print and broadcast media corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California that was in operation from 1865 until 2000. Owned for the whole of its existence by the de Young family, CPC was most notable for owning the namesake San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and KRON-TV, the longtime National Broadcasting Company (NBC) affiliate in the San Francisco Bay Area television media market.

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in Emeryville, California. It was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization, and has since grown into a multi-platform newsroom, with investigations published on the Reveal website, public radio show and podcast, video pieces and documentaries and social media platforms, reaching over a million people weekly. The public radio show and podcast, “Reveal,” co-produced with PRX, is CIR’s flagship distribution platform, airing on 588 stations nationwide. The newsroom focuses on reporting that reveals inequities, abuse, and corruption, and holds those responsible accountable.

The Night Cabbie is a newspaper column that ran in the San Francisco Examiner and later the San Francisco Chronicle on and off from August 19, 1996, through December 27, 2004, under a trademark logo of a man peering into a car rear view mirror that highlighted the author's anonymity. The term is also the pen name of the anonymous columnist.

The Walk for Life West Coast is an annual anti-abortion event held in San Francisco, California. It is held on a Saturday on or near January 22, the anniversary date of the decision in the United States Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaughn Walker</span> American judge

Vaughn Richard Walker is an American lawyer who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011. Walker presided over the original trial in Hollingsworth v. Perry, where he found California's Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional.

The San Francisco Examiner is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Gulker</span> American photographer, programmer and writer

Christian Frederick "Chris" Gulker was an American photographer, programmer, writer, and pioneer in electronic publishing.

The San Francisco Independent was the largest non-daily newspaper in the United States. It helped to popularize the free newspaper as a business model at the beginning of the 21st century, and also rescued the San Francisco Examiner from being shut down by the Hearst Corporation.

The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine is a Sunday magazine published on the first Sunday of every month as an insert in the San Francisco Chronicle. The current magazine is the successor of The San Francisco Examiner Magazine; the staff of the Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner were combined in 2000 following the sale of the Examiner.

References

  1. ↑ Fost, Dan (30 March 2012), "Merger with investigative unit likely to mean major shift in Bay Citizen coverage", The New York Times, New York, pp. 23A
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Julie Haire. "So What Do You Do, Phil Bronstein?". mediabistro. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Julie Tucker (7 January 2012). "Phil Bronstein leaves Hearst after 31 years". SFGate.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Phil Bronstein, The Complete Marquis Who's Who
  5. 1 2 Frank Bruni (19 May 1998). "San Francisco Journal; The Newsman and His Movie Queen". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  6. ↑ Sampey, Kathleen (15 November 2004), "Phil Bronstein: On the Spot", Adweek, New York, 45 (43): 28
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Bronstein, Phil" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Bronstein named to lead examiner", San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, pp. A2, 24 November 1991
  9. 1 2 "Hearst buys S.F. Chronicle; merger likely with Examiner". Archived from the original on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  10. 1 2 "Phil Bronstein", SGA Executive Tracker, 28 August 2012
  11. 1 2 3 Felicity Barringer (2 December 2002). "MEDIA; An Uneven Road to Respectability For The San Francisco Chronicle". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  12. 1 2 Yang, Nu (March 2012), "Resignation of Hearst Newspapers's Phil Bronstein", Editor & Publisher, 145 (3): 69
  13. ↑ Yang, Nu (July 2011), "Center for Investigative Reporting: Phil Bronstein", Editor & Publisher, 144 (7): 69
  14. ↑ Fost, Dan (5 July 2003), "Stone, Bronstein plan to divorce", The Globe and Mail, Canada, pp. 23A
  15. ↑ "Sharon Stone opens up about miscarriages". Toronto Sun. Wenn.com. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  16. ↑ Bear, Liza; Oldenburg, Ann (May 24, 2002). "No fashion stone left unturned". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 16, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Stone Cold: After Surviving Two Health Scares and One Large Lizard, Sharon Stone and Her Editor Husband, Phil Bronstein, Call It Quits". The New York Times. 21 July 2003. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  18. 1 2 Antonowicz, Anton (24 September 2008), "Stone loses custody battle of son Roan, 8; Hollywood", The Mirror, no. 9
  19. ↑ Cagle, Jess (23 June 2001). "Transcript: Sharon Stone vs. the Komodo Dragon". Time. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2008.
  20. ↑ Hall, Carla; Daunt, Tina (9 May 2002). "Mayor Promotes L.A. Zoo Director". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  21. ↑ Pence, Angelica (11 June 2001). "Editor stable after attack by Komodo dragon / Surgeons reattach foot tendons of Chronicle's Bronstein in L.A." San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
  22. ↑ "My Interview With Christine Bronstein". Success and Chocolate. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  23. ↑ "The War over Roan - Custody Battles, Phil Bronstein, Sharon Stone : People.com". Archived from the original on 2012-11-20. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  24. ↑ "Encounter". Digital.modernluxury.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-07. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.