MediaNews, Hearst Mulling Joint Newspaper Distribution in Bay Area

By: E&P Staff Is this the first fallout from the MediaNews/Hearst Corp. $1 billion collaboration in buying four Knight Ridder papers last week?

The two companies are now considering doing joint newspaper distribution operations in the Bay Area, with carriers delivering papers from both companies, according to a story in Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle. This would be a rare arragement between competitors in the same market.

A top MediaNews executive told the Chronicle no detailed exploration of
joint distribution has taken place.

"To the extent there are things that can be done lawfully within antitrust guidelines, we're open to those sorts of things, but have not sat down to flesh out areas where we might work together," MediaNews President Jody Lodovic said. "Distribution is one that might be relevant because clearly there would be efficiencies ... (and it) would not have any antitrust implications."

But journalistic competition would continue. Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews, told staffers at one of his new papers, the San Jose Mercury News, on Wednesday that the Chronicle is "the enemy. They're the big Kahuna, the metro daily we all have to compete with," according to the Chronicle story.

The Chronicle's editor, Phil Bronstein, told staffers on Thursday that "the battle lines are drawn" for pursuing journalistic excellence.