Singleton Comments on Big Connecticut Deals

By: E&P Staff and The Associated Press The deals are complicated, the state's attorney general is looking into a new partnership, and a CEO is telling staffers they need to re-apply for their positions.

It all began on Thursday when the MediaNews Group Inc. said it is expanding its Connecticut joint venture with The Hearst Corp. to include Hearst's newly acquired newspapers, The Advocate and Greenwich Time.

Tribune Publishing announced separately that Hearst will acquire The Advocate, in Stamford, and Greenwich Time.

The existing MediaNews-Hearst joint venture already included the Connecticut Post and The News-Times in Danbury. Denver-based MediaNews is the manager and will retain 60 percent of the profits from the venture.

The transaction is expected to close within the next few weeks.

"We are delighted to add The Advocate and Greenwich Time to our growing Connecticut cluster," said Dean Singleton, chief executive officer of MediaNews.

"As a result of our increased reach in Fairfield County and added editorial resources and efficiencies provided by our Connecticut joint venture, each of the newspapers, as well as our advertisers and readers, will benefit," Singleton said.

Privately held MediaNews is the nation's fourth-largest newspaper company. Together with its affiliated companies, it publishes about 60 daily newspapers including The Denver Post and The Detroit News.

Hearst publishes more than a dozen newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle, plus 19 magazines including Cosmopolitan, Esquire and O, The Oprah Magazine.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office has already started an investigation into the MediaNews-Hearst operation.

The review began after The Hour Publishing Co., which owns The Hour in Norwalk and weekly papers in Wilton and Stamford, wrote to Blumenthal with concerns about being left at a competitive disadvantage.

"We're investigating and will take whatever action is justified by the facts and the law," Blumenthal said Thursday. "If there is a concentration of ownership and control, so that a number of existing sources of information in effect combine and collude, there could be effects on choices for consumers."

Blumenthal said his office and federal antitrust authorities will have to clear the purchases of The Advocate and Greenwich.

Meanwhile, an article in The Advocate reports today: "William Dean Singleton, founder and chief executive officer of MediaNews, addressed employees in The Advocate and Greenwich Time newsrooms yesterday.
'I think we will have the largest news-gathering news force in Connecticut,' Singleton said of MediaNews, which, besides the Danbury newspaper, operates the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport and six weeklies in Fairfield County.

"The newspapers will continue to run independently, but the ability to collaborate "makes it very exciting for our advertisers, our readers and our employees," said Singleton, who became a reporter at 15 and bought his first newspaper when he was 21.

"His company has been interested in buying the newspapers for some time, Singleton said. He said he bid for them again when a recent offer by Gannett Co. collapsed. 'We believe in the future of newspapering or we wouldn't be here,' he said.