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Community Newspapers has new owner as McClatchy makes deal with MediaNews

By Dale Bryant

David Cohen, publisher of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, foresees no change in the quality or focus of the group's eight weekly newspapers under ownership of MediaNews.

Denver-based MediaNews on April 26 purchased four of the 12 Knight Ridder Newspapers that the McClatchy Co. put up for sale immediately after announcing on March 13 that it had purchased Knight Ridder.

MediaNews is purchasing the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, the Monterey Peninsula Herald and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The Community Newspapers and the Palo Alto Daily News are both included in the sale as part of the Mercury News.

"Four minutes after the deal was inked," said Cohen, " I met MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton in the Mercury News board room. "He seemed incredibly proud as he announced to Mercury News vice presidents that he sees the paper as his new flagship."

Singleton owns a number of Bay Area newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune and the Alameda Newspaper Group, as well as the Denver Post.

In a press release issued by the McClatchy Company, Singleton said of the four newspapers he purchased from Knight Ridder: "These were the newspapers that excited us the most about Knight Ridder, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to acquire them from McClatchy."

MediaNews, and its partners Gannett Co. and Stephens Media Group, joined with the Hearst Corp. to buy the four newspapers for a price of $1 billion in cash. In a complex transaction, the Hearst Corp. is buying the St. Paul and the Monterey papers in exchange for an equity investment in the non-San Francisco Bay Area assets of Media News.

According to Cohen, Singleton asked Mercury News publisher George Riggs to stay on. "We will continue developing a relationship with the Mercury that will allow us a greater opportunity for getting breaking news stories out more quickly."

So far as the "fiercely local" approach that is the backbone of the Community Newspapers, Cohen said: "Just as there were no changes in our editorial product under Knight Ridder, I don't anticipate any changes under MediaNews."

Cohen, who owned the Community Newspapers, sold them on Oct. 14, 2005, to Knight Ridder and stayed on as publisher. Just a few weeks later, under pressure from investors, Knight Ridder put itself up for sale.