After interviewing more than 80 “industry participants,” the Justice Department has closed its antitrust review of the complicated $1 billion deal that will make MediaNews Group the leading newspaper publisher—and the most powerful online publisher—in the Bay Area. The review determined that the savings from combining some operations will help consumers and that competition won’t be reduced “substantially.”
To recap the April deal: McClatchy will sell the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times to MediaNews and the Monterey (CA) Herald and the St. Paul Pioneer Press to Hearst; Hearst will then turn over the papers to MediaNews in exchange for an equity investment in non-Bay Area MediaNews assets. MediaNews will contribute the Mercury News and CCT to California Newspapers Partnership; it owns the majority with Gannett A and Stephens Media as minority partners.
-- The Justice Department statement stressed that the review did not take into consideration potential future deals between MediaNews and Hearst, explaining that it is aware that Hearst may be considering other “collaborative arrangements” with MediaNews in the Bay Area. “If and when any such arrangement is proposed, the Division will investigate whether it would adversely affect competition.”
Related: Preliminary Talks Underway For MediaNews-Hearst Bay Area Mega-Portal
-- Singleton Plans To Use Mercury News As Print-Web Lab
-- It’s Official: McClatchy Sells Four Papers for $1 Billion To MediaNews; Hearst Involved