MediaNewsMonopoly

When McClatchy, the Sacramento-based newspaper chain, announced that it had sold two major Bay Area newspapers to MediaNews Group, journalists throughout Northern California were thunderstruck. That’s because if it stands the deal will give MediaNews ownership of virtually every daily newspaper in the Bay Area, with the single exception of the San Francisco Chronicle. (For a graphic representation of the sale’s impact, see this week’s Sifter.)

McClatchy had recently purchased the papers as part of its buyout of the Knight-Ridder chain and wanted to dump them to help pay off its multi-billion-dollar acquisition debt. MediaNews, which is run by Denver-based Dean Singleton, already owns 11 newspapers in the Bay Area. (It also owns many of the papers in the Sacramento Valley, including the Chico Enterprise-Record, the Paradise Post and the Oroville Mercury Register in Butte County.) Included in the purchase of the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times were 31 small-market dailies and weeklies, which will give Singleton control of 44 papers in the Bay Area, with its 9 million people. Their combined daily circulation is 814,425, nearly twice the Chronicle’s 419,000.

For Singleton and MediaNews, the financial advantages to be gained through “clustering” efficiencies are obvious. But the quality of journalism inevitably will go down—in one of the best educated and most diverse regions in the country. Singleton, who is known in the industry as “lean Dean” for his cost-cutting moves, is likely to cut staffs by consolidating news gathering, advertising and business functions. “We seek to increase operating cash flows at acquired newspapers by reducing labor costs,” the company’s annual report states.

The McClatchy-MediaNews deal should not go forward. Last week six members of Congress urged the Bush administration to initiate a full Justice Department review of the pending deal. We hope—naively, perhaps—that it happens. We also would like to see California Attorney General Bill Lockyer begin a detailed, public investigation of the transaction.

Bay Area civic leaders and politicians also should weigh in. Indeed, anyone who values media diversity should get involved. Ultimately, the only sure way to stop this monstrous monopoly is to mount a grassroots campaign that no politician can ignore.