SIR Luncheon Speaker
October 14, 2019
Tom Barnidge Metro Columnist Contra Costa Times
Before retiring in 2016, Tom Barnidge was a journalist for 46 years. Tom will speak with us about the state of our print media and the news business.
He was a sportswriter and columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, managing editor of The Sporting News and executive editor of the National Football League’s Publishing Division before coming to Walnut Creek in 2004 to become sports editor of Contra Costa Times.
He left sports journalism in 2009 to fill the newspaper’s need for a metro news columnist. During his seven years in that position, he observed, analyzed and offered opinions about life in the East Bay in a column that appeared in the local news section three times a week.
He commented on topics as diverse as local government, telephone scams, the fire district, BART labor negotiations, high-speed rail and the effectiveness of government agencies. He says it was a welcome change from writing about pitching rotations and zone defenses.