BayArea.com to Become MercuryNews.com

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By: The San Jose Mercury News is getting its name back ... online. Knight Ridder Digital will kill its BayArea.com portal on Tuesday, when the URL will become MercuryNews.com.

On the same day, the Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek, Calif., will launch its own site, ContraCostaTimes.com.

A Knight Ridder Digital spokeswoman said each will be more geographically focused, with MercuryNews.com covering San Francisco's South Bay area and ContraCostaTimes.com covering the East Bay area.

The change is part of Knight Ridder's shift away from the local portal strategy to emphasize local newspaper brands. Last year, Knight Ridder's DFW.com became Star-Telegram.com and Miami.com became Herald.com.

But the spokeswoman pointed out that some Knight Ridder markets will retain their local portal brands, including KansasCity.com (where the newspaper name includes the city name) and TwinCities.com in Minnesota.

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