Singleton Watching 'SF Chronicle' Situation 'With Interest'

By: Joe Strupp William Dean Singleton, whose company owns nearly every daily newspaper in the Bay Area outside of the San Francisco Chronicle, remained mum on whether he would be interested in the Chronicle following Hearst's announcement that it may sell or close the paper.

With MediaNews Group owning a dozen San Francisco area papers -- including the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune -- speculation has already begun over what he may do as Hearst reveals it needs to severely cut costs in order to stem some $50 million in annual losses. Hearst said late Tuesday it would close or sell the paper if it could not get deep concessions from unions and reduce other expenses.

"We'll just watch it play out," Singleton, who is CEO and vice-chair of MediaNews Group, told E&P Wednesday. "I am not going to speculate on what could happen. It would be futile to speculate on the future."

But with his Bay Area News Group papers successfully implementing many consolidation programs, from news coverage to centralized business operations, Singleton's chain is poised to takeover the Chronicle easily from an operational standpoint.

But, from a financial standpoint, he may be in no better shape than many other newspaper companies, and perhaps worse. MediaNews remains highly leveraged, with Hearst holding a substantial amount of MediaNews debt.

Hearst also owns 31% of MediaNews Group newspapers outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, Singleton said.

Still, the two companies have a history of joint partnerships, most recently with four Connecticut papers that MediaNews had managed for Hearst. That arrangement ended last year when Hearst took control of the papers, and also purchased the Connecticut Post of Bridgeport from MediaNews.

Even if MediaNews could not purchase the Chronicle, it could be part of any variety of deals to keep the paper going, through shared content, circulation or other opportunities.

"Hearst is a valued partner of MediaNews," Singleton said. "We've worked together on many fronts. But this is a situation that they are playing out on their own. We will be watching with interest."

Singleton added that he is not surprised the Chronicle would be in such a difficult economic position. "These are extremely difficult times for all newspapers, especially metro newspapers and even more especially California newspapers," he said. "I share their pain."