Wednesday, April 26, 2006
The new MediaNews monopoly
Story by Florence Brown
MediaNews Chief Executive Dean Singleton called the San Jose Mercury "the crown jewel" of the Knight Ridder company today as he eagerly bought it from McClatchy. I almost gagged.
It's like watching a movie set in colonial times where greedy entrepeneurs sit around a map of Africa and slice it into pieces while they pat each other on the back and smoke Cuban cigars. The crown jewel? Was he serious? Does the package include a fleet of elephants and a harem of servants?
I recently acquired a job with MercuryNews.com (the San Jose Mercury's site) and my colleagues gleefully love to point out that I could not have entered at a more turbulent time. The week I signed my contract, Knight Ridder sold to McClatchy. The week I began training down at the office, McClatchy sold to SingletonCorp, err, I mean MediaNews.
It doesnt mean much for my job in particular since I'm just a lowly part-time web producer. Nothing will change about what I do every morning when I wake up at 4 a.m. and edit the news site. For thousands of readers across the Bay Area, however, it signals an end to an era of diverse newspaper options and the freedom to choose how one consumes media. There are two choices now for those who call this area home - the San Francisco Chronicle or the MediaNews monopoly.
I chose to apply with Knight Ridder papers solely because I liked their style of multimedia and writing. The Alameda News Group, which is owned by MediaNews, never appealed to me particular. Turns out the choice has been made for me anyway, as I unwittingly enter the mysterious Walmart-like business of cost-cutting and penny pinching media monopolies.
I hope I'm wrong. Maybe San Jose Mercury employees will say "damn the man" and continue business as usual with their trademark style and flair. Perhaps one day I'll look back on this blog and laugh at how worried I was that the big bad Denver-based media giant would consume the Bay Area. Either that or I should place bets on that sh*t and get my money's worth. I'm not quite sure.
Either way, I'm worried most about the disposable nature of my little tiny job in the saga of big-time newspaper sales. Only time will tell, so I guess I'll report back in a few months if I, and the Mercury, are still keeping our heads above water.
MediaNews Chief Executive Dean Singleton called the San Jose Mercury "the crown jewel" of the Knight Ridder company today as he eagerly bought it from McClatchy. I almost gagged.
It's like watching a movie set in colonial times where greedy entrepeneurs sit around a map of Africa and slice it into pieces while they pat each other on the back and smoke Cuban cigars. The crown jewel? Was he serious? Does the package include a fleet of elephants and a harem of servants?
I recently acquired a job with MercuryNews.com (the San Jose Mercury's site) and my colleagues gleefully love to point out that I could not have entered at a more turbulent time. The week I signed my contract, Knight Ridder sold to McClatchy. The week I began training down at the office, McClatchy sold to SingletonCorp, err, I mean MediaNews.
It doesnt mean much for my job in particular since I'm just a lowly part-time web producer. Nothing will change about what I do every morning when I wake up at 4 a.m. and edit the news site. For thousands of readers across the Bay Area, however, it signals an end to an era of diverse newspaper options and the freedom to choose how one consumes media. There are two choices now for those who call this area home - the San Francisco Chronicle or the MediaNews monopoly.
I chose to apply with Knight Ridder papers solely because I liked their style of multimedia and writing. The Alameda News Group, which is owned by MediaNews, never appealed to me particular. Turns out the choice has been made for me anyway, as I unwittingly enter the mysterious Walmart-like business of cost-cutting and penny pinching media monopolies.
I hope I'm wrong. Maybe San Jose Mercury employees will say "damn the man" and continue business as usual with their trademark style and flair. Perhaps one day I'll look back on this blog and laugh at how worried I was that the big bad Denver-based media giant would consume the Bay Area. Either that or I should place bets on that sh*t and get my money's worth. I'm not quite sure.
Either way, I'm worried most about the disposable nature of my little tiny job in the saga of big-time newspaper sales. Only time will tell, so I guess I'll report back in a few months if I, and the Mercury, are still keeping our heads above water.
# posted by Phil Deez @ 7:44 PM 