McClatchy’s sale of the Contra Costa Times and the San Jose Mercury News is still pending federal approval but would-be owner MediaNews is already knee-deep in the hooplah, particularly when it comes to possible internet plans. Joseph Ludovic, president of MediaNews, says the company has had preliminary talks with Hearst, its partner in a complex deal to acquire the papers, to form an internet joint venture. The JV would pull together the web assets of the Times and the Mercury News, the MediaNews Bay Area papers and Hearst’s SF Chronicle. There’s no telling how real the proposition is—Peter Negulescu, VP-digital media for SFgate.com, told the CC Times: “That’s news to us.” And Ludovic stressed that the talks are preliminary, “just exploratory discussions of things we could do together.” Then again, he also said the domain probably would be BayArea.com, currently the online home of the Mercury News.
MediaNews Chairman William Dean Singleton continues to stress the importance of the Bay Area acquisitions: “The showcase is how you meld print and online effectively. I think there is no better place in the country to come up with new ideas and new plans in melding online and print than in the Bay Area.”
Related: Singleton Plans To Use Mercury News As Print-Web Lab
-- It’s Official: McClatchy Sells Four Papers for $1 Billion To MediaNews; Hearst Involved