Anschutz Knocks Down 'Chron' Rumors, Focuses On Baltimore

By: Joe Strupp For a man who never gives interviews and seeks little personal attention as he slowly builds a free-newspaper chain, Philip Anschutz is finding himself at the center of several rumored newspaper buys.

First, according to spokesman Jim Monaghan, the Denver-based billionaire was among those thought to be interested in Knight Ridder. Monaghan said he has had to knock down that rumor more than once.

Then just this week, Anschutz was supposed to be angling for the San
Francisco Chronicle, which competes with his free San Francisco Examiner. Also not true, according to Monaghan and sources at Hearst Newspapers, the Chronicle's parent.

"That is not our model," Monaghan said of both the Hearst and Knight Ridder properties. "We haven't looked at any of them." What Anschutz has focused on is his latest venture, the Baltimore Examiner, which debuts April 5 and promises a 250,000 circulation of both free home delivery and street distribution.

Like his previous launches of the San Francisco paper and the Washington Examiner, the Baltimore paper will target high-income home delivery, street hawkers, and commuters. But, Monaghan notes, this one is slightly different because it is a complete start-up. "We are doing it from scratch," he said, noting that both other Examiners evolved from newspapers already in operation. "We are hiring newspeople now and will do some trial runs the week before, everything but print it."

Editor Frank Keegan, formerly of the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport, Conn., has been at the newsroom helm for about a month.

Lacking a printing press at the paper's offices in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the Examiner will be printed by American Color of nearby Belcamp, Monaghan said.

"We don't see ourselves as competing against The Sun," Monaghan said of Baltimore's dominant daily. "The audience we are looking for are not regular newspaper readers. We are going to the homes of people who may not be ardent newspaper readers."

Monaghan also hinted that Anschutz is likely to announce his next project about a month after the Baltimore launch, but declined to say if it involves another newspaper or a different publication. "It is going to be different than what we have done so far," he said.