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MediaNews Adds 4 Newspapers in Deal With McClatchy and Hearst
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Singleton's purchase was seen by some as an affirmation of the newspaper industry, which has suffered from circulation declines and uncertainty about growth. He said in a meeting of newspaper editors this week that he is spending $500 million on presses for newspapers.
MediaNews owns 54 percent of the California Newspapers Partnership, which includes the Alameda Newspaper Group in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as more than a dozen community newspapers throughout the region.
Staffs in the newsrooms of the four newspapers questioned whether the clustering strategy would hurt the quality of the newspapers' content and steer coverage in a new direction.
"What we don't want is a cookie-cutter approach to news where all newspapers can share content," said Griff Palmer, database editor for the San Jose Mercury News.
The announcement also raised questions about labor contracts.
Singleton appeared in the San Jose newsroom with Knight Ridder chief executive Tony Ridder shortly after yesterday's announcement and spoke for about 40 minutes. According to staff members, Singleton said that there would not be immediate pay cuts or job cuts in San Jose but that union contract issues had not yet been worked out. The contract in that newsroom expires in June.
At the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the news brought little relief to a newsroom that has endured the uncertainty of its ownership for months.
Jack Sullivan, an editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, said publisher Par Ridder and two Knight Ridder executives addressed staff members yesterday afternoon but couldn't answer questions about whether union contracts would be honored or staffs would be cut.
"I guess the devil you know is better than the one that you don't know," he said. "But if that's relief, I don't know if I'll take it."
