SAN FRANCISCO, Ca., October 31, 2005 — Two of the San Francisco Bay Area’s leading operators of city guides on the Web joined forces today with the acquisition of the award-winning SF Station by Boulevards New Media Inc. Boulevards is a subsidiary of AAN member Metro Newspapers, which publishes Metro Silicon Valley, Metro Santa Cruza and the North Bay Bohemian. Boulevards will operate both San Francisco.com, a leading tourism portal, and SF Station, a popular guide to entertainment events, food and culture. SF Station compiles an innovative and detailed Web-based, Bay Area-wide events calendar largely comprising user-posted listings. SF Station’s business directory allows businesses to modify their own listings in real time. Dozens of writers contribute reviews and other editorial material on subjects ranging from nightlife and music to film, the performing arts, restaurants, shopping and sports.
An early Internet pioneer, Boulevards launched city guides on the Web in 1994 and is today the leading U.S. operator of “city.com” web sites, including Los Angeles.com, Seattle.com, Dallas.com, Houston.com and Philadelphia.com. The Boulevards network includes more than 200 Web sites, among them the Mr MovieTimes.com network, which Boulevards acquired last year. San Francisco.com is Boulevards’ flagship site and is widely used by visitors to San Francisco to book hotels, restaurant tables, tours and rental car reservations.
Four friends — Kyu Kyung, Mike Richards, Vincent Archuleta and Harlow Newton — started SF Station in 1996 without outside funding. Adrian Dorsman came on board as Chief Technology Officer in 2003. Kyung, Newton, Archuleta and Dorsman will remain with the company.
Both services are free to users, with revenues coming from advertising and transactions. Both companies are profitable and have experienced strong growth in the past year.
“We viewed this as an opportunity to offer customers a way to reach both locals and tourists with one buy,” said Boulevards CEO Dan Pulcrano. “We’ve long admired SF Station as one of the best city guides on the net. It’s homegrown, authentic, urbane and smart. We hope to help it become an even brighter shining star on the Internet.”
“We’re very excited about this opportunity to be a part of the Boulevards network. We’ve been approached by a number of media companies in the past year, but felt like Boulevards was the best fit, because of similar company cultures and their willingness to support our vision,” said Kyung, who will remain president of SF Station’s operating company.
