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Everything about Medianews Group totally explained

MediaNews Group, based in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States. It is privately owned and operates 40 daily newspapers in 9 states, with combined daily and Sunday circulation of approximately 1.7 million and 2.3 million, respectively. The company also owns KTVA, a CBS affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska, and radio stations in Texas.
   The company's chairman is Gary Wright and its chief executive officer and vice chairman is founder William Dean Singleton. The president is Jody Lodovic. Steven B. Rossi is executive vice president and chief operating officer.

History

Singleton founded MediaNews Group in 1983.
   In August, 2006, the company took out around $350 million in loans to purchase four newspapers from McClatchy Company. Among those providing the loan was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The loan was mostly used to help pay for the acquisition of two significant San Francisco Bay Area newspapers (and some smaller papers), including the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times, the dominant papers in the San Jose and Contra Costa County, California markets; in total, the purchases amounted to roughly $737 million. Hearst Corporation owns 31% of MediaNews publications outside the San Francisco Bay area. Form 10-Q

New England Newspapers

In 1995 MediaNews made its first foray into New England, purchasing the Berkshire Eagle and associated newspapers, including the Vermont dailies Brattleboro Reformer and Bennington Banner and Connecticut daily Middletown Press, the last of which it sold soon after to Journal Register Company.
   In the next two years, MediaNews expanded its footprint across Massachusetts' northern tier with its purchases of the North Adams Transcript (1996), Sentinel & Enterprise in Fitchburg (1997) MediaNews also purchased the Connecticut Post in 2000, paying $203 million.
   In 2007, MediaNews expanded in Connecticut, operating the Stamford Advocate and the Greenwich Time, two dailies in lower Fairfield County with a combined circulation of about 35,000. The Hearst Corporation purchased the two papers from the Tribune Company, and MediaNews operates them through an existing agreement between the two companies. MediaNews makes the day-to-day publication decisions at the two papers.

Corporate Culture

MediaNews Group is known as a cost-cutter in the newspaper publishing industry. The company has a reputation for buying smaller daily newspapers in a single area (examples include Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area) and consolidating their operations, including sharing staff writers and printing facilities. As a result of the cost-cutting, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, some former employees say that the newspapers are focused on making a profit to the detriment of good journalism.
   On the other hand, Singleton is quick to point out that MediaNews is committed to print journalism, not diversification into other media. The Berkshire Eagle editor David E. Scribner, two years after MediaNews bought his newspaper, said the staff respected Singleton despite layoffs because of his hands-on leadership and "traditional emphasis on good writing." forbidding Hearst and MediaNews from working together on national advertising sales or distribution. On December 21, 2006, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and nonprofit Media Alliance filed suit to make the details of Reilly's lawsuit -- and MediaNews and the Chronicle's response -- public. As a result of the filing, many documents in the case were voluntarily disclosed by the defendants. The judge allowed redacted versions of two more documents to be released. She kept 17 others under seal. One of the documents unsealed was the deposition of Hearst's Asher, who says that as of September 2006, his company had recorded cumulative losses of $330 million on its investment in the Chronicle, which it acquired in mid-2000. He said Hearst proposed selling the Chronicle to MediaNews, but MediaNews didn't offer enough money. Asher also said Hearst and MediaNews have discussed working together for years. Although the trial was scheduled to start Monday, April 30, 2007 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the parties announced Wednesday, April 25, 2007 that a settlement had been reached.

Newspapers

Dailies

Daily newspapers owned by MediaNews, alphabetically by state and hometown, are:
  • Times-Herald of Vallejo, California
  • San Gabriel Valley Tribune of West Covina, California
  • Whittier Daily News of Whittier, California
  • Willits News of Willits, California
  • Daily Democrat of Woodland, California
  • Los Angeles Daily News of Woodland Hills, California
  • Brush News-Tribune of Brush, Colorado
  • Denver Post of Denver, Colorado
  • Fort Morgan Times of Fort Morgan, Colorado
  • Lamar Daily News of Lamar, Colorado
  • Journal Advocate of Sterling, Colorado
  • Connecticut Post of Bridgeport, Connecticut
  • The News-Times of Danbury, Connecticut
  • Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg, Massachusetts
  • The Sun of Lowell, Massachusetts
  • North Adams Transcript of North Adams, Massachusetts
  • The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts
  • The Detroit News of Detroit, Michigan
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minnesota
  • Alamogordo Daily News of Alamogordo, New Mexico
  • Current Argus of Carlsbad, New Mexico
  • Deming Headlight of Deming, New Mexico
  • Farmington Daily Times of Farmington, New Mexico
  • Las Cruces Sun-News of Las Cruces, New Mexico
  • Silver City Sun-News of Silver City, New Mexico
  • Public Opinion of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
  • Evening Sun of Hanover, Pennsylvania
  • Lebanon Daily News of Lebanon, Pennsylvania
  • York Daily Record (and Sunday News) of York, Pennsylvania
  • El Paso Times of El Paso, Texas
  • The Graham Leader of Graham, Texas
  • Park Record of Park City, Utah
  • The Salt Lake Tribune of Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Bennington Banner of Bennington, Vermont
  • Brattleboro Reformer of Brattleboro, Vermont
  • Charleston Daily Mail of Charleston, West Virginia  
    • In addition, MediaNews manages but doesn't own The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut and Greenwich Time of Greenwich, Connecticut. The company runs the newspapers for the Hearst Corporation under a joint operating agreement.

    Weekly newspapers

  • Brooks Community Newspapers, publishing six weekly newspapers in Connecticut
  • Gazette Newspapers, two weekly newspapers in Long Beach, California
  • The Greater New Milford Spectrum in New Milford, Connecticut
  • Impacto USA, a Spanish-language newspaper in Long Beach, California
  • Lake Country Newspapers, several weeklies in Texas
  • Nashoba Publishing, several weekly newspapers in northern Massachusetts
  • Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, nine weeklies near San Jose, California
  • Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership, including two weeklies in New Mexico

    Television Station

  • KTVA (CBS Affiliate) in Anchorage, Alaska.

    Other properties

    Other MediaNews properties include:
  • LA.com, a portal site based in Los Angeles, California
  • Lake Country Radio of Breckenridge and Graham, Texas
  • U-Entertainment of Los Angeles, California
  • Woman Magazine of Norwalk, ConnecticutFurther Information

    Get more info on 'Medianews Group'.


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