Sunday, Dec. 6
1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California
1840 Sutter St., SF’s Japantown.

How will the community be kept informed with the closure of Northern California’s two Japanese American bilingual newspapers? How will this impact community organizations? Arising out of the ashes of the Nichi Bei Times, how is the Nichi Bei Foundation and its nonprofit publication — the Nichi Bei Weekly — functioning? Does the community need a Japanese-language press?

Co-sponsored by the Japanese American National Library, National Japanese American Historical Society, the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, the Nichi Bei Foundation and the Nichi Bei Weekly.

For more information: (415) 673-1009 or info@nichibeifoundation.org.

A group of community leaders and journalists did something seemingly unusual last week – they started a newspaper, the Nichi Bei Weekly.

But while its introduction comes as economic pressures are forcing publications to scale down or close, it also comes at a time when the audience for ethnic media is bigger than ever.

According to a study earlier this year by New America Media, a San Francisco group that represents 2,000 ethnic news organizations around the country, readership in this sector increased by 16 percent over the last four years.

Still, it won’t be easy. Despite an increasing readership, the ethnic press hasn’t escaped the same downturn in advertising that has hurt mainstream publications.

The fledgling Weekly, in fact, was born out of the demise of the Nichi Bei Times, Northern California’s oldest Japanese American paper.

Read the full San Francisco Chronicle story, here.