MediaNews Buys Four Former Knight Ridder Papers

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS)  -- Dean Singleton, owner of Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc., has purchased four former Knight Ridder newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, and the Monterey County Herald, for $1 billion.

With backing from Hearst Corp., MediaNews also bought the Saint Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota.

The four were among a dozen newspapers around that country that McClatchy Co. decided to spin off immediately after announcing a deal in March to purchase Knight Ridder for $4.5 million.

MediaNews already controls 22 suburban newspapers in northern California.

Word of the acquisition was not welcomed by the San Jose Newspaper Guild, which had 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.

“They would surround San Francisco,” Jackson said, with a combined daily circulation of 820,000, far higher than the San Francisco Chronicle’s 420,000 daily circulation.

Jackson said the Guild worried that each paper would become less local in focus as the resources of the different publications were combined.

“One of the things they’ve done in other areas is cluster,” Jackson said, “In other words, have fewer reporters and fewer resources serving a wider area. We think that would be less service and less excellent journalism for the community.”

Jackson said the Guild was still hopeful that the sale would be blocked over concerns about antitrust violations.

“We’re very heartened by announcements both by the Attorneys General in California and Minnesota saying that they will look into anti-competitive aspects of any deal,” Jackson said.

Meanwhile, Mercury News Executive Editor and Vice President Susan Goldberg says the Internet has changed the media business, and therefore, a single entity owning multiple papers is not the worry it once would have been.

"To reflexively say that this buyout is going to stifle competition is really working off the old model," Goldberg told KCBS.  "I don't think in any way, single ownershop is going to change that. 

"In the olden days when the newspaper really had a monopoly on the news and was really the only source of news and information, I think it was a big issue, and it would be a concern," Goldberg said.  "While I understand the concerns about one large entity owning a lot of papers in an area, I think that the information industry is more competitive than ever."

Last week, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that his office would conduct an antitrust review of the Knight Ridder sale.

The Contra Costa Times reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking additional information regarding its pending purchase of Knight-Ridder, but limiting its inquiry to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.

McClatchy told the Contra Costa Times it intends to respond promptly to the DOJ request.

(jro)