KCBS: MediaNews Buys (San Jose Mercury News), CoCo Times

[Newsjock]

http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS) -- Dean Singleton, owner of Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc., has purchased two former Knight Ridder newspapers, the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times.

The Bay Area papers were two of a dozen newspapers around that country that the McClatchy Co. decided to spin off immediately after announcing a deal in March to purchase Knight Ridder for $4.5 million.

... Word of the acquisition was not welcomed by the San Jose Newspaper Guild, which has partnered with the Los Angeles venture capital firm Yucaipa, to put in a bid for the Mercury News.

When the Denver company’s weekly publications are included, that brings the tally of Bay Area papers Singleton would control to 43, said the guild’s executive director, Luther Jackson.

more

[noonwitch]

1. The San Jose paper was a great one in the 80s

they broke the story about the Reagan administration allowing the contras to sell cocaine in this country to fund their counter revolution.


Of course, the right wingers blame that on Clinton, too, because an airport in AK was allegedly used by the Contras for unloading the cocaine. But these are the people who accuse every death in AK while Clinton was governor on him, including dumb teens hit by trains (around here, we usually just blame alcohol).

[blm]

3. CIA drugrunning story was in the 90s and actually I do blame

Clinton for downplaying the story then and doing nothing in office to let the facts come forward.. He helped the denial when he could have allowed the truth to be open to the public. Only some years later did the truth come out and the story Webb wrote verified by CIA documents.

Webb was vilified by the NYT, LA Times and WaPost as delusional. He was taunted out of the industry. "Delusional" for researching and writing the TRUTH. BushInc has a wide net of operatives in the media who will attack anyone who dares to seek the truth.

[OKthatsIT]

5. Gary Webb said Clinton knew about the black ops in AK

The CIA had to have his permission to use the airports in Arkansas. This was during the last yrs of Reagan's reign, while we watched him slowly become more 'forgetful'...also when Bush was acting more as PResident, preparing himself for the next election.

However, this does not mean Clinton know what these black ops were up to in Arkansas. The very nature of a CIA operation means it's classified.

[blm]

9. What Clinton COULD have done was open up the books on IranContra

and BCCI and the CIA drugrunning - The Bushes and Bin Laden wouldn't be menacing the US today if he had.

[AX10]

2. About MediaNewsGroup:

http://www.medianewsgroup.com/

"MediaNews Group is one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States situated throughout California, the Rocky Mountain region and the Northeast. We are privately owned and operate 40 daily newspapers in 9 states with combined daily and Sunday circulation of approximately 1.7 million and 2.3 million, respectively. Each of our newspapers maintains a website focused on local news content. These websites are hosted by MediaNews Group Interactive, our new media division, and are aggregated along with our content under the umbrella site www.newschoice.com. In anticipation of changes in the regulations governing the ownership of newspapers, radio and television, we acquired a television station, a CBS affiliate in Anchorage, AK and we also operate radio stations in Texas."

[depakid]

6. More consolidation

when what the country needs is extensive divestment and more local control.

Just another symptom of a nation in decline....

[Robbien]

7. Singleton calls Bush his good friend.

He was also the one who ordered the Salt Lake Tribune to endorse Bush over objections of its editorial board.

With his history of gutting papers to the bare bone, this is not good news.

[wryter2000]

4. I write for the CoCo Times

Freelance garden columns. I hope this doesn't affect my work.

[Ian David]

10. I dare you to try and hide anti-bush statements in the garden column n/t

[wryter2000]

12. Well, there are Bushes...

...and there are bushes. :)

[Newsjock]

8. UPDATE: Hearst (SF Chronicle) provides financial backing for deal

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/26/financial/f145848D07.DTL

... The deal will strengthen MediaNews's presence in northern California, where it already owns several papers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The complex deal involves financial backing from Hearst Corp.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14435492.htm

... MediaNews will purchase the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, and Hearst will acquire the Monterey County Herald and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Under a separate agreement between Hearst and MediaNews, Hearst has agreed to contribute the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Monterey Herald to MediaNews in return for an equity investment in the non San Francisco Bay Area assets of MediaNews.

If the deal is blocked by regulators, MediaNews has agreed to acquire the Pioneer Press and the Monterey County Herald from Hearst.

[Neecy]

13. Not surprising...

When I lived in San Francisco, I subscribed to the Merc-News over the Chronicle because the quality of their reporting was a thousand times better --- far more in-depth, quality analysis, excellent writing.

What do you do when there's a better product in the region? Help buy it out and drive it into the ground. That happened to the Oakland Tribune years ago and it'll happen to the Mercury-News now.

Sad, very sad.

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. I used to write for the Monterey County Herald

I was there in 1997 when it was sold by Scripps to Knight-Ridder. That was ugly.

I can imagine what's going on there now. They've gone from momentary good (being purchased by McClatchy) to awful (this) in a couple of months. Singleton papers do not have a good reputation in the industry.

At least Monterey's not in an urban area, so the Herald won't be "clustered."

Another story here: http://www.ktvu.com/news/9022041/detail.html

MediaNews Group's holdings: http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/medianews.asp

[EFerrari]

14. We are SO screwed. n/t