A bad sign for the business

When Singleton recently purchased the former Knight-Ridder papers, the Contra Costa Times and the San Jose Mercury News, everyone was rightly afraid that those papers and the Oakland Tribune would become one big paper, using one reporter for each of the Bay Area beats. The only consolation was perhaps it would take them a while to figure out how to merge. When Knight Ridder first bought the CCT and Merc, it took them about 4 or 5 years to finally combine beats between the two.

Well, it has happened quickly. Already we've seen the Merc and CCT using the Tribune's gamers on the road, and just this week the CCT opted against covering a HOME game, instead picking up the Tribune.

This is bad. Very bad.

We used to have at least 6 different newspapers that traveled with all of the major Bay Area teams, and now we're down to 2.

 

Sucks to be you guys. Oh well, there's always the chance of a federal shield law.

 

Does this mean more high school coverage? college coverage opportunities? Less stories about Barry Bonds, Al Davis, etc.?

 

that's the million dollar question, isn't it? i hope they're not firing the former baseball writers. and isn't more local coverage what most people say will save newspaper and get people to subscribe?