Contra Costa and San Jose

Both papers are now under Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group. It was predicted in March, when there was talk McClatchy would unload those papers and Singleton was a potential buyer, that it could be trouble, especially in sports, for the Northern California papers under one owner, much like it was for the Southern California papers when Singleton bought up San Gabriel Valley, Long Beach, Pasadena, Ontario and San Bernardino and joined it with the Daily News and basically gutted those sports sections.

Sure enough. ...

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4127895


From the story:
In northern California, Media News already publishes the Oakland Tribune, the Hayward Daily Review, the San Mateo County Times, the Marin Independent Journal, the Tri-Valley Herald and the Fremont Argus.

Jody Lodovic, president of MediaNews, said planning meetings have begun. He said changes at the papers won't show up for at least several months.

Lodovic noted that editorial staff at some papers will likely be shifted around. For instance, if two reporters at nearby papers are covering professional baseball, one reporter could be reassigned to write about high school sports.

He said many of those decisions will be made by current management, with guidance provided by MediaNews executives.

 

that sucks for whoever is now covering baseball. this sounds like heresey but from a business standpoint it's not so crazy to have one singleton guy covering the a's and one covering the giants. or maybe two on each team but not one writer from each paper.

 

That happens in Southern California. San Gabriel gets the Angels reporter, the Daily News the Dodgers reporter. Everyone gets the copy and uses "staff writer" bylines even though they're not on staff for that particular paper.

 

You know I'm a prep sports guy, and would never disparage it or its practitioners in the biz, but still, that's a pretty gut-wrenching example they're giving to their staffs from a career-track standpoint.

 

But come on, if you're a writer, you can write...
[/sarcasm]

 

Career-track wise, that's like going from Beyonce to Star Jones.

And I have nothing against high school sports. But to go from covering the Oakland A's to high schools is quite a change.

 

And so the talk begins of cut, cut, cut in Northern California

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/15196745.htm


"It's just hard to look at the newspaper business and be a real optimist," said Riggs. "We are going to have to become super, super efficient on the cost side. We're going to have to become the Wal-Mart of information purveyors. None of us wants to hear that, but that's a harsh reality."

 

And L_C, what you fail to point out in your excerpt there is:

Riggs is the guy in charge of making those cuts. He's the friggin' publisher of all the NorCal papers now. Fuck.

FCC, can we have back our rules against media monopoly? I really liked that rule when it was strict. I really, really liked that rule. We'll be good, promise. :-\

 

The destruction of the Merc continues, if there was anything left to rip down. And CCT, which isn't a bad paper in itself, is also affected.

Jesus. This would be a good market to stay away from for the future.

 

This is going to be a replay of Southern California in the late 1990s, early 2000s.

 

Except the one that most people read, the Chronicle

 

I worked with a few Contra-Costa guys in Santa Maria in the early '90s. Good guys. Hope they don't get bounced around.