MediaNews Group Layoffs: Bay Area Newspaper Group Announces Major Cutbacks

SAN FRANCISCO — MediaNews Group is combining most of its daily newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area to save money on their print editions so that the company can invest in ways to bring in more revenue from the Internet and mobile devices.

The shake-up announced Tuesday will affect about a dozen newspapers located across the bay from San Francisco. Beginning Nov. 2, those newspapers will shed their distinct identities and adopt one of two new brands, the East Bay Tribune and The Times.

Fewer newspapers brands will result in fewer jobs. The Bay Area News Group, a division that operates the affected newspapers, expects to reduce a staff of 1,500 by about 8 percent, or 120. An office in Walnut Creek, Calif., will close.

Most of the cuts are expected to occur within the newsrooms and operations that print the newspapers.

Mac Tully, president of the Bay Area News Group, said in an interview that it was inefficient to produce so many different newspapers "when two could do the job."

Like other major newspaper publishers, MediaNews has been hard hit by a prolonged advertising slump that has left it with less money to cover its bills.

The downturn caused MediaNews' parent company, Affiliated Media Inc., to file for bankruptcy protection last year and negotiate a reorganization plan that left it under the ownership of dozens of lenders, led by Bank of America Corp. The new ownership is searching for a replacement for MediaNews co-founder and CEO William Dean Singleton, who is also chairman of The Associated Press.

There had been signs that the steep drop in newspaper advertising was easing late last year, but the industry has seen declines grow larger so far this year.

"The economy has been more challenging than anticipated," Tully said.

But he said most of the changes would have been made even if revenue had been rising, so the newspapers could adjust to the rising demand for the digital delivery of news and advertising. Although specifics weren't provided, the newspapers expect to develop more services for tablet computers and smartphones.

The largest newspapers affected by the overhaul are The Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek. The Oakland newspaper will be folded into the East Bay Tribune brand along with the Alameda Times-Star, The Daily Review, The Argus in Fremont and West County Times in Richmond. The Contra Costa Times will be blended with The Valley Times, San Ramon Valley Times, Tri-Valley Herald, San Joaquin Herald and East County Times.

Most of those newspapers already had been re-classified as editions of MediaNews' largest Bay-area newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. But the newspapers retained their own names, making that switch less noticeable to readers. With Tuesday's changes, the new names will appear at the top of the front page.

In another change announced Tuesday, the Mercury News' brand will be stamped on the San Mateo County Times, another nearby daily owned by MediaNews.

Including its various editions operating under other brands, the Mercury News had an average daily circulation of nearly 578,000 during the six months ending in March. That made it the fifth-largest daily newspaper in the U.S.

Comments

[WoodsideCraig]

10:24 PM on 08/28/2011

The part that's left unsaid is that newspapers have increasingly irrelevant news and boring conservative viewpoints that fail to do the one thing that makes news agencies relevant: protect the public interest.

When you allow any old viewpoint to be treated with credibility no matter how ridiculous, you've lost the high ground there is simply nothing to learn from the paper. (on line edition included)

I'm not an expert on politics for example, so I want to know what a real expert, who sweats the details thinks. And I want to know why.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

09:32 PM on 08/28/2011

I subscribed to the San Francisco Chronicle for an introductory annual rate of only $99.00, but had to discontinue service recently because the newspaper wanted over $500.00 for my Central Valley service. Fairly soon, the Chronicle will be reduced to a mere online news organization, which is not the same as a traditional newspaper.

Only about ten percent of my college classes read a newspaper or access Internet news or television news regularly. They are so poorly informed about current events that only the same ten percent chose to vote in the 2010 elections. When the rest of my classes discovered that Prop 19 involved more liberal marijuana laws, then they became exercised about voting.

I fear that our nation is ripe for a full takeover by any authoritarian with an adroit PR machine. Already, at least half the electorate often votes against its own best interests in favor of neo-conservative corporatists. Besides not being aware of current events, our young adults generally display a shocking knowledge about their own American history, government, economics, geography, etc.

[capn moose]

01:43 PM on 08/26/2011

Born into the newspaper business 68 years ago, the closing of each paper saddens me. But I have witnessed horribly bad business decisions and worse, horrible assaults on newspaper credibility from within the offices of the owners and managers. Some years back, a man who received his newspaper chain, a great, highly respected chain, from his family walked into a board meeting and said that because of Wall Street it would be necessary for that chain to increase its net profit by 2 per cent that year, and probably 2 per cent the next. The chain was mostly family owned and thus Wall Street's approval was totally unneeded. But the cuts started, the bonuses for executives grew, the sharp=eyed consultants took bonuses for more staff cuts, and eventually the chain began to shrink and then was sold and the man and many in his family walked away with millions as ordinary workers were fired. Advertising had almost nothing to do with that chain's demise, and those readers of this will know exactly of whom I am speaking.

[sloreader]

11:41 PM on 08/25/2011

Rumors of the demise of journalism have not been exaggerated.

[ydnas639]

12:30 AM on 08/26/2011

Weep for the fourth estate, hung out to dry by the plutocrats.

[sloreader]

12:39 AM on 08/26/2011

Rendered asunder, if you will.

[Cacey]

06:36 PM on 08/25/2011

Singleton is responsible for more major newspaper closings than any man in the history of America.

[Mister Grumpy]

09:37 AM on 08/25/2011

Seems SF now has fewer voices in the choir. This should make Republicans jump for joy. No one to counter their spreading lies and rumors.

[jalowe1957]

10:35 PM on 08/24/2011

MediaNews: Fox News in microcosm.

[pjwrites]

08:53 AM on 08/24/2011

Here's a thought: do your jobs properly and quit toadying to your corporate sponsors and quit acting like government lackeys. Journalists have lost all credibility - in fact, everyone in media has lost ALL credibility.
You've proven once and for all that anyone can be bought and no one can be trusted.

[gypsy508]

09:05 AM on 08/24/2011

This is one of the worst newspaper chains ever. At the wages they pay, anyone with dignity would have found a new career by now.

[CenaW]

10:32 AM on 08/24/2011

Consolidating the newspapers into the hands of a few conservative owners killed them.
The conservative voter doesn't read, and no liberal is going to read that bs.

[jennielake]

01:17 AM on 08/24/2011

This will put allot of kids out of work that go door to door to sign people up.

[NRAMember2008]

08:51 PM on 08/23/2011

Seems to be the going trend, Cutbacks and layoffs.