• San Francisco Business Journal , Monday, March 23, 2009 9:30 AM

Prominent California business leaders including investment banker Warren Hellman made an overture last week to Hearst Corp. about helping the troubled San Francisco Chronicle become a nonprofit.

Hellman and San Francisco attorney Bill Coblentz discussed the idea; then Coblentz conveyed it to William R. Hearst III, who is a Hearst Corp. director and an affiliated partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The proposal would be for a nonprofit corporation "to take over the Chronicle," with Hearst Corp. continuing to provide some philanthropic support. Other details remain sketchy. The paper has reportedly been losing $1 million or more a week for the past several years.

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