Jon
04-25-2007, 07:36 PM
Clint Reilly got quite a deal for settling his lawsuit holding up the MediaNews purchase of a group of Bay Area newspapers.
The story is not nearly as interesting to the rest of the world as it is to us in the newspaper industry, but it definitely shows that MediaNews wanted to drop the thing and be done with it.
According to the Associated Press, Publishers Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc. agreed to rescind a cooperative agreement to share national advertising, Internet ad sales, distribution and production in the Bay Area.
While Hearst didn't give up much, Reilly got a spot on the editorial board of any Bay Area MediaNews publication for three years and has a quarter page space in every MediaNews newspaper for a weekly column.
Very bizarre.
Now that the purchase has no obstacles, you should not be surprised if there are mass changes at MediaNews papers in this area. In San Mateo County, that includes the San Mateo County Times and the Daily News Group.
There already has been some consolidation, but some industry insiders have predicted that many cuts were being held back in case the lawsuit went to trial since it would make the purchase look bad.
Or the increased economies of scale could mean there are new resources for the local newspapers, but that has yet to be seen.
The Daily Journal has local ownership and one of the nice things about local ownership is that we don't have to worry about changes being discussed far away from our news room. If we ever had to make a cut, it would affect people we spend a lot of time with and enjoy being around. That would make it nearly impossible. In larger organizations, reporters, editors and other workers can sometimes be just a number.
On the other hand, we don't have the resources of larger news organizations that, for instance, can put one reporter on a larger investigative piece or send a reporter to other parts of the country to pursue a story.
I still prefer local ownership, however.
The story is not nearly as interesting to the rest of the world as it is to us in the newspaper industry, but it definitely shows that MediaNews wanted to drop the thing and be done with it.
According to the Associated Press, Publishers Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc. agreed to rescind a cooperative agreement to share national advertising, Internet ad sales, distribution and production in the Bay Area.
While Hearst didn't give up much, Reilly got a spot on the editorial board of any Bay Area MediaNews publication for three years and has a quarter page space in every MediaNews newspaper for a weekly column.
Very bizarre.
Now that the purchase has no obstacles, you should not be surprised if there are mass changes at MediaNews papers in this area. In San Mateo County, that includes the San Mateo County Times and the Daily News Group.
There already has been some consolidation, but some industry insiders have predicted that many cuts were being held back in case the lawsuit went to trial since it would make the purchase look bad.
Or the increased economies of scale could mean there are new resources for the local newspapers, but that has yet to be seen.
The Daily Journal has local ownership and one of the nice things about local ownership is that we don't have to worry about changes being discussed far away from our news room. If we ever had to make a cut, it would affect people we spend a lot of time with and enjoy being around. That would make it nearly impossible. In larger organizations, reporters, editors and other workers can sometimes be just a number.
On the other hand, we don't have the resources of larger news organizations that, for instance, can put one reporter on a larger investigative piece or send a reporter to other parts of the country to pursue a story.
I still prefer local ownership, however.