MisterSF.com About Mister SF


Mister SF: Since I might not ever have a jazz album, here's the second-best place for this shot of a Sunday moment in my private parlor.

Hank Donat is the San Francisco based journalist known as Mister SF. Hank created MisterSF.com in February, 2001, when it seemed that San Francisco had given up on itself. In the post Millennium, dot-com-bust hangover, articles and items appeared in abundance in the City's media that enumerated the many ways in which the City sucked. Hank says, "I wanted to remind everyone of all the reasons it's still the best place."

Hank decided to combine his years of success in journalism, the arts, and advertising & design to create MisterSF.com. While the word "blog" had appeared fewer than a handful of times in the City's dailies, Hank started writing his Heart of the City column online. In a milestone for a web site, Heart of the City became the first ongoing Internet column picked up by a citywide newspaper when it was published regularly in The Examiner/Independent beginning in February, 2002. During the 2003 mayoral election, Heart of City and MisterSF.com were the only media to feature an individual writer in unique field interviews, in San Francisco's neighborhoods, with all of the major candidates. Other honors and distinctions followed. In 2004, Hank was the only citywide journalist/spouse to provide first-person coverage of San Francisco's historic gay marriages with the blessing of editors. In 2006, features from the site were adapted for a GPS-guided tour on the streets of San Francisco, with the visitor behind the wheel and Mister SF as the storyteller. Determined to protect his effort and the rights of all independent writers and artists, Hank successfully sued an author/library employee for plagiarism after Hank's personal stories appeared as the author's own in a 2006 book on San Francisco in the cinematic arts. In 2008, Hank was named among "Five Helpful Web Sites for San Francisco" by Fodor's in the publisher's San Francisco 2008 guide. As the only site named that's maintained by an individual, MisterSF.com stands proudly next to sfgate, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, SFist and SFStation. Hank lives with his husband, Jeff, in San Francisco, where they enjoy a fun, dramatic life.

Copyright Notice.


   

SF Chronicle, 02/02/04
Emcee: World Premiere, "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," Lumiere Theatre, 02/05/04
Baltimore Outloud, 02/20/04
Associated Press, 03/12/04
Marina Times, March, 2004
Presenter: Brian Copeland Day in San Francisco, The Marsh, 04/17/04
Nob Hill Gazette, May, 2004
Marina Times, May, 2004
SF Examiner, "Body Politic," 05/24/04
KGO Talk Radio 810 NewsTalk, 05/25/04
SF Independent, "Alleys and Avenues," 06/08/04
San Francisco Magazine, August, 2004
The War Between the State (ISBN 1-57061-378-8)
Emcee: St. Francis Hotel Employees Reunion, 08/15/04
2004 SF Bay Area Publicity Club Nominee:
__ Best Newspaper Columnist
__ Best Web Site
__ Best Print Feature
SF Chronicle, 08/24/04
SF Downtown, November, 2004
Celebrity Waiter: Music in Schools Today "Stars on Staff" Benefit, Ana Mandara Restaurant, 11/13/04
San Jose Mercury News, 11/25/04
SF Chronicle Sunday Magazine, 01/02/05
Marina Times, January, 2005
Nob Hill Gazette, January, 2005
San Francisco Call, 01/18/05
Bay Area Reporter, 03/03/05
Inductee: Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, March, 2005
Co-Host: "Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco," September, 2005
Los Angeles Times, 04/18/06

   
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