San Francisco May Lose Its Afternoon Paper, Report Says Hearst Seeks Deal To Run S.F.’S Morning Paper, Instead
The Hearst Corp. is negotiating to close down the San Francisco Examiner after 108 years of publication and take over the city’s other major daily newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, according to a report in Saturday’s San Jose Mercury News.
Hearst, which owns the Examiner, wants to shutter the afternoon paper and buy a minority interest in the morning Chronicle - but only if it gets to run the paper, unidentified sources told the Mercury News.
“A discussion is under way to shut down the afternoon newspaper, but the issue is, ‘Who will run the remaining paper?”’ the source told the Mercury News. “The only way Hearst will do it is if they run the paper.”
The De Young family, which owns the Chronicle, is reluctant to let Hearst run the paper but has expressed interest in co-ownership, the Mercury News said. Hearst is willing to close the Examiner, take a minority equity position and grant the Chronicle a substantial majority interest - if it can run the paper, the paper said.
The Examiner and the Chronicle have separate news and editorial divisions but share business operations and split profits in a joint operating agreement that expires in 2005.
The Chronicle has published since 1865; the Examiner since 1887.
Both San Francisco papers have lost circulation in recent years, with the Chronicle’s falling below 500,000 and the Examiner’s below 111,000. Each is expected to lose up to $6 million this year, the Mercury News said.
Closing the Examiner would leave San Francisco with just one major daily newspaper. Only a few major cities still boast more than that, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C. Afternoon papers that have closed recently include The Evening Sun of Baltimore and The Evening Bulletin of Providence, R.I.
Hearst Corp. publishes 15 consumer magazines and 12 daily newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio ExpressNews, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Times Union of Albany, N.Y. It also owns six television and six radio stations.