About

Tom Prete is a former professional newspaper reporter and editor who worked 12 years in the more or less mainstream media, including stints as editorial-page editor of the San Francisco Examiner and managing editor of the San Francisco Independent. After leaving newspapers in 2006, Prete worked for the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association think tank for about a year and a half, ending in September 2007. Now he is an independent writer and editor, but SPUR is still one of his clients. He has been observing San Francisco media, politics, government and city life since about 1980, with a particular focus on City Hall and urban planning.

Contact me

You can call me at 415-685-3428. Comments about blog posts or my blog in general are best made on the blog itself, but if you need to reach me for other purposes, please call. Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/tomprete. I’m on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tomprete, though I don’t use Facebook much.

I’m available for editing and writing work, as well as writing and reporting coaching for individuals and small groups.

Guidelines

I’m sometimes asked whether I’m still a journalist, and whether I consider my blog and my tweets to be journalism. I suppose the only answer I can give is that sometimes I am, and sometimes they are. I know that’s not the clearest answer, so think of my blog and most of my tweets as roughly equivalent to a newspaper column. I often have an opinion, but I always try to be fair and factual.

I will inform readers of any situation I think could possibly represent an economic interest that might be viewed as influencing my writing. I’ve never received an offer lucrative enough to influence what I write, though.

I generally don’t edit or remove people’s comments to my posts. But if you expect my blog to be a vehicle for your abuse of other readers, for your suggestions that readers hurt other people or for your libelous statements, forget it.