from dw-world.de
The AP reports that The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined "a few dozen banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and others entities" in loaning $350 million to MediaNews Group Inc. to purchase four newspapers from Sacramento-based publisher McClatchy, which werein turn purchased in the Knight-Ridder deal earlier this year.
MediaNews picked up the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey County Herald and St. Paul Pioneer Press earlier this month after being cleared by the Deptartment of Justice, in a deal estimated at $1 billion. MediaNews, which owns the Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune and The Detroit News adds these properties to its Bay-area holdings, which are comprised of the Oakland Tribune and a number of suburban Bay Area papers.
The Gates Foundation did not disclose their contribution to the funding. Per the AP: "The Gates Foundation typically spends most of its money on global public health issues"; helping to prop up a $1 billion-sale — of newspapers! — must mean that maybe they're worth saving, after all. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to go check our RSS.
