In late November 2000, Phil Bronstein, the foreign correspondent who had risen to become editor of the scrappy San Francisco Examiner, was darting around town for interviews, giving a full-throated endorsement of the Hearst Corp.'s takeover of the much larger Chronicle. Many city residents expressed hope that the $660 million deal, in which the city's two dailies were set to merge, would finally deliver to San Francisco the high-quality newspaper it deserved. For 35 years, the papers had been locked lamely in a joint operating agreement, sharing business operations on Fifth and Mission streets in buildings literally joined at the...
