Deal Keeps Alive Bay Area Papers 'Headed for Graveyard'

REILLY LAWYER: DEAL KEEPS ALIVE BAY AREA PAPERS 'HEADED FOR GRAVEYARD'
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Mark Fitzgerald and Jennifer Saba]
The Oakland Tribune, the Fremont Argus and other smaller San Francisco Bay Area dailies will "stay alive" only because of the settlement reached Wednesday, said the head lawyer for Clint Reilly, whose lawsuit had accused Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group of scheming to monopolize the region's newspaper market. Under the settlement, Hearst, which publishes the San Francisco Chronicle, and MediaNews agreed not to collaborate on national advertising, Internet advertising, sales, distribution or production in the Bay Area. The settlement also rescinds Hearst's right to convert its interest in MediaNews properties outside the Bay Area into a direct investment in the Denver-based company. The settlement does not give Reilly the thing he was asking the court to do: Unwind MediaNews' complex $736 million purchase of the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times. Under the settlement, Reilly will also get a bully pulpit in all CNP newspapers for the next three years. He will get a quarter-page of paid space free for "personal copy" in the local section of each CNP paper once a week. The settlement calls for Hearst and the other companies in CNP to pay all Reilly's attorney fees and court costs. Reilly himself will receive no money. Reilly will be back in court soon filing a motion to unseal all documents and depositions in the lawsuit.
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