The San Francisco Chronicle will soon face competition: The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are coming out with a Bay Area edition by the end of this year.

Since February, the survival of the Chronicle has already been at stake, since Hearst Corporation no longer wants ownership for financial reasons. The Chronicle lost more than $50 million in 2008 and is projected to lose more this year, according to a Feb. 24 New York Times article.

There have been debates on what the fate of San Francisco's main newspaper will be. There were talks about whether MediaNews Group is going to buy it, meaning one group would have a monopoly on the whole news industry for the Bay Area -- possibly jeopardizing objectivity and accuracy. Without other news organizations to check them, the MediaNews Group could potentially publish whatever they want and select news to their advantage.

But now the Journal and the Times pose a threat in terms of reporting. The two New York-based newspapers have a reputation for high-quality coverage and already have a high circulation in the Bay Area.

According to a New York Times article from Sept. 4, the Journal's weekday circulation in the Bay Area is 98,000 while the Times has 49,000 subscribers on weekdays and 65,000 on Sundays. The Feb. 24 article shows the Chronicle's daily circulation at 339,000.

But will the quality of their coverage really remain as high if they come to the Bay Area?

"It is good for the newspaper but bad for journalism," said Matt Stannard, a Chronicle reporter. "There is no way a handful of New York Times journalists can do enough coverage."

Similarly, Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, told the New York Times that "they'd be seen as administering the final death blows to these metro dailies."

The Journal and The Times could prevent the Bay Area from getting proper local coverage. People need to know what's going on in their backyard because that's what affects them the most. Local news coverage needs to remain a local enterprise.