Newspaper cartelization gets well-deserved kick in the teeth

As Editor and Publisher reports, Hearst and MediaNews have gotten a federal smackdown, courtesy of a settled lawsuit, over their attempt to cartelize to monopolize Bay Area newspaper control.

The Oakland Tribune, the Fremont Argus and other smaller San Francisco Bay Area dailies will “stay alive” only because of the settlement reached Wednesday, said the head lawyer for Clint Reilly, whose lawsuit had accused Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group of scheming to monopolize the region’s newspaper market.

“The smaller local papers will be able to survive now,” [lawyer] Alioto told E&P in an interview after the settlement announcement.

“The Oakland Tribune, the Fremont Argus, San Mateo (County Times), (The Daily Review in) Hayward, Novato (Marin Independent Journal) — all of those papers were heading for the graveyard,” Alioto added. “There was pretty strong evidence those papers were going to go out. By reason of our agreement, I think, they’ll stay alive, at least for three years.”

Under the settlement, Hearst, which publishes the San Francisco Chronicle, and MediaNews agreed not to collaborate on national advertising, Internet advertising, sales, distribution or production in the Bay Area, Alioto said.

Of course, three years isn’t a lot. And Hearst is already spinning this deal.

A Hearst statement said the settlement mandates “certain changes” in the complex Bay Area deal between Hearst and MediaNews. Hearst said the two chains “had already decided to make most of these changes during the course of the Hart-Scott-Rodino review by the Department of Justice. The changes have no material effect on Hearst’s investment in the non-Bay Area assets of MediaNews Group.”

Sure. Two newspaper companies this big wouldn’t have settled this lawsuit unless they knew it was highly likely they would lose.

And, it did block further metastasis of Big Media:

The settlement also rescinds Hearst's right to convert its interest in MediaNews properties outside the Bay Area into a direct investment in the Denver-based company.

Unfortunately, it didn’t reverse MediaNews’ purchase of former McClatchey papers in the Bay Area last year, the deal that started this whole MediaNews-Hearst cartel rolling:

The settlement does not give Reilly the thing he was asking the court to do: Unwind MediaNews’ complex $736 million purchase of the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times. MediaNews bought the papers last June from The McClatchy Co., which acquired them as part of its acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. Hearst also bought two former Knight Ridder papers, one in the Bay Area, the Monterey County Herald, and the other a competitor to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, then owned by McClatchy, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Hearst also bought a southern California paper, the Daily Breeze in Torrance in a $288 million deal.

Hearst then agreed to turn ownership of the three papers over to MediaNews in exchange for equity in MediaNews' non-Bay Area properties.

So, that three years? It’s probably more a stay of execution than a parole, let alone an actual pardon. And, that’s sad. The Trib, especially, needs to remain alive as an independent seven-day voice for the East Bay.

World’s oldest paper now online-only

American Journalism Review reports:

The world's oldest newspaper — Sweden's Post-och Inrikes Tidningar — had abandoned print to become a Web-only publication. The momentousness of that change is tempered by the fact that the paper had a daily circulation of around 1,000 and mainly publishes legal announcements.

“Hyperlocal” coverage: future or fad?

Hyperlocal newspaper coverage, whether in hardcopy or online, is being touted as the latest Tool to Save Newspapers. An American Journalism Review story suggests it may not be all that. Beyond the article’s noting that, based on experience of papers to date, there’s definite concerns about content and quality of editing/writing, I just don’t see how this works on the advertising side.

If you’re targeting such narrow blocks, like Census blocks, for these sections or pages, well, your circ numbers for the overall paper may be high, but not that section. Ditto for online. I just don’t see this being the “savior.”

A tab a month in a county of 30,000?

The newspaper I am at now is a weekly in a city of 7,500 and county of about 30,000; it’s the only paper in the county and is not part of a local “group.” I don’t know for sure if that’s too much, to do a tab every month, or I just don’t want that much work, but I think that’s probably a bit heavy. A tab every 6-7 weeks, on average, is probably more realistic.

More profit-taking by corporate newspaper ownership on its own

First, at the corporate ownership of my current newspaper, it’s a two-day ad sales managers’ meeting at the owners’ deer hunting lodge, which probably got a decent internal profit off of charges to member newspapers as well as a business tax write-off.

Now, it’s charging more than $80 for ancillary expenses at a free seminar on PDFs. (Don’t know if people from other newspapers, as this was an open seminar, got similar billing as what the person out of our office claims.)

Just remember: you want the most capitalistic business in America, just look at your local newspaper.