Chron is an alternative daily news website based in San Francisco that covers local, state and national politics. It is available at http://www.beyondchron.org, and is published and edited by Randy Shaw, Executive Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic -- a local non-profit housing rights organization.[1932] Beyond Chron's slogan, "The Voice of the Rest," is a take-off from the San Francisco Chronicle, whose masthead dubs itself "the voice of the West." The San Francisco Chronicle -- known locally as the Chron -- is the largest daily newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Beyond Chron was launched on April 7, 2004 in response to the Chronicle's coverage of local politics, following the 2003 San Francisco mayoral race between pro-business moderate Gavin Newsom and progressive Matt Gonzalez. Shaw and other progressives believed that the paper's coverage was strongly biased in favor of Newsom. "The paper's coverage of the Newsom-Gonzalez mayoral runoff," wrote Shaw, "was as fair and balanced as Fox News' accounts of the Bush Administration. But unlike Fox News, whose mistruths are exposed on dozens of progressive blogs, the Chronicle's daily bias goes largely unscrutinized."[1933]

Progressives in San Francisco had often complained about the Chronicle's coverage over the years, said Shaw, "but the paper's power is undeniable" and needed to be challenged. As the paper of record for San Francisco, the Chronicle can often frame the issues and dictate the local political discourse. There was a need, Shaw wrote, to provide an outlet for San Franciscans to learn a different side of the story free of the Chronicle's real estate downtown agenda.

While local progressives have relied on alternative publications like the San Francisco Bay Guardian for years, the Guardian is only a weekly paper. Viewing the success that progressive blogs like Daily Kos had done in re-shaping the national dialogue by promoting under-reported stories and holding the mainstream media accountable, Shaw felt that there was a need to create an equivalent online for local politics.

Randy Shaw is the editor-in-chief and main contributor to Beyond Chron, but other regular contributors have included Casey Mills, E. Doc Smith, Buzzin' Lee Hartgrave, Lisa Schiff, and tenant activist Ken Werner. Early in its publication, former Chronicle columnist Henry Norr (who was fired from his job for attending an anti-war protest),[1934] was a regular contributor. The website also has various local political activists like Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union write op-ed pieces.

Beyond Chron has helped shape the political dialogue in San Francisco by publicizing landlord-tenant battles, protests by activist groups, landmark court cases, and legislative battles that are important to progressives.

Beyond Chron has also broken various stories in local politics. In August 2005, it was the first to report that San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting, who had been appointed by Mayor Newsom and was running for election, had evicted a tenant for an owner move-in eviction.[1935] In April 2006, Beyond Chron reported that the Mayor's Press Secretary had purchased a "tenancy-in-common" unit in which tenants had been evicted under the Ellis Act. [1936] This was significant because at the time, Mayor Newsom supported policies that would make it easier for TIC owners to convert their units into condominiums.

Beyond Chron has also been criticized by others in San Francisco. In February 2005, residential builder advocate Joe O'Donoghue published a poem on Beyond Chron critical of Mayor Newsom that speculated that the Mayor was gay.[1937] This caused an outcry among some LGBT activists, and prompted Beyond Chron to create Submission Guidelines in order to avoid such mistakes in the future.[1938]