Phil Anschutz buys San Francisco Examiner

[ThreeApples]

http://www.sfexaminer.com/templates/story.cfm?displaystory=1&storyname=021904n_examiner

[Northside Rovers]

Interesting.

Maybe the Quakes can cut a deal for good ad rates.

[Red Card]

If he buys up newspapers like he buys up MLS teams and movie theatres, it will be a great leap forward for soccer news in the mainstream. But on the other hand, Rupert Murdoch owns the NY Post and they hardly mention soccer in the sports section.

[Michael K.]

Originally posted by Red Card
If he buys up newspapers like he buys up MLS teams and movie theatres, it will be a great leap forward for soccer news in the mainstream.

That's far from a given.

[seahawkdad]

Originally posted by Red Card
If he buys up newspapers like he buys up MLS teams and movie theatres, it will be a great leap forward for soccer news in the mainstream. But on the other hand, Rupert Murdoch owns the NY Post and they hardly mention soccer in the sports section. Unfortunately for soccer, the print media has to attract advertisers, and that's based upon readership, and that's based upon printing what's of interest to the most people...and that's not our favorite sport.

[geordienation]

The printing side of this deal must be worth something because the newspaper sure isn't.

The Ex has had declining circulation for years and, post-Hearst swap, it's become a freebie rag.

They launched south into San Mateo county last year and picked up some circulation, but they're basically following the business model of other free, metro tabs.

[ThreeApples]

Originally posted by geordienation
The printing side of this deal must be worth something because the newspaper sure isn't.

The Ex has had declining circulation for years and, post-Hearst swap, it's become a freebie rag.

They launched south into San Mateo county last year and picked up some circulation, but they're basically following the business model of other free, metro tabs.

Phil Anschutz has a long history of buying businesses on the cheap and rebuilding them or transforming them in to something new. The biggest value that the Examiner holds is in its brand name. The current paper is nothing, but Anschutz could rebuild into a decent paper and having a historic name like the Examiner won't hurt his efforts.

[geordienation]

Originally posted by Noah Elliott
Phil Anschutz has a long history of buying businesses on the cheap and rebuilding them or transforming them in to something new. The biggest value that the Examiner holds is in its brand name. The current paper is nothing, but Anschutz could rebuild into a decent paper and having a historic name like the Examiner won't hurt his efforts.


It's a brand name to folks outside of the Bay Area. Those who have lived in the Bay Area (self included and you're in the East Bay) know that it has sucked as a newspaper for years. Even 10 years ago, it had declined significantly to the point that only its columnists had any juice.

To rebuild brand identity with new products is one thing, but in the newspaper business, reputations are hard to repair once they're damaged.


Translation: Newspapers ain't other businesses.

[masoo]

Originally posted by geordienation
To rebuild brand identity with new products is one thing, but in the newspaper business, reputations are hard to repair once they're damaged.

Translation: Newspapers ain't other businesses.

I've lived in the Bay Area for 50 years, and been reading the Chronicle about that long.

If Phil does a Charles Foster Kane and buys all the Chron's columnists, he'll repair that damaged reputation v.quickly. Not saying he will do that, but it's not impossible.

If the Bay Area woke up one morning and found out that Jon Carroll, Leah Garchik, Tim Goodman, Emil Guillermo, Matier & Ross, C.W. Nevius, Joan Ryan, Gwen Knapp, Glenn Dickey, Ray Ratto, Henry Schulman, Mick LaSalle, Aidin Vaziri, Scott Ostler and Joel Selvin had all moved to the Examiner, the Bay Area would move to the Examiner, too.

[picaraza]

Yeah, and he's got to get good comics as well!

I continued to pick up the Examiner long after it was a rag just to read 'Zippy the Pinhead'

Maybe the Quakes could actually get some coverage. There is next to nothing in the Chronicle.

[geordienation]

Originally posted by masoo
I've lived in the Bay Area for 50 years, and been reading the Chronicle about that long.

If Phil does a Charles Foster Kane and buys all the Chron's columnists, he'll repair that damaged reputation v.quickly. Not saying he will do that, but it's not impossible.

If the Bay Area woke up one morning and found out that Jon Carroll, Leah Garchik, Tim Goodman, Emil Guillermo, Matier & Ross, C.W. Nevius, Joan Ryan, Gwen Knapp, Glenn Dickey, Ray Ratto, Henry Schulman, Mick LaSalle, Aidin Vaziri, Scott Ostler and Joel Selvin had all moved to the Examiner, the Bay Area would move to the Examiner, too.


Yeah, but that's not gonna happen. There's no denying that the market is there for the taking, given that the Chronicle may be the largest bad paper in America, but I just don't know how the Ex is going to be anything more than a commuter paper with this kind of business model.

[monster]

Originally posted by Red Card
If he buys up newspapers like he buys up MLS teams and movie theatres, it will be a great leap forward for soccer news in the mainstream. But on the other hand, Rupert Murdoch owns the NY Post and they hardly mention soccer in the sports section.

Yeah because Phil owning movie theatres has led to nothing but reruns of Victory on the big screen.

He's a businessman first.

[ne plus ultra]

The movie business is more relevant than soccer. Typically, newspapers in competitive cities have to corner one of several ad markets - apartments, autos, department stores and movies are the largest.

In Chicago, the Reader, a weekly, survives because it cornered the apartment and bar/band ads. The Sun-Times has remained competitive partly because of Ebert, Roeper and a decent stable of other entertainment writers, who pull in enough readers that the weekend movie ads remain big money. The Trib is the big car market, home sale ads, and it leads in most of the glossy retail stuff. (For that matter, it probably leads in the movie ads, but it doesn't dominate the market the way it might.)

If I were Uncle Phil, I'd make entertainment section a highlight of the new Examiner, and use my own theater ads to help push the process. I'd say the Examiner has a future.

As a small business owner, I hate the cross-marketing power of big media corporations. I especially hate when it affects the writing and story selection. I try to stay away from news sources that seem to let that happen.

Teevee news simply isn't trustworthy, because the business side has way too much control over the news side. Papers tend to be much better, partly because there are so many more employees and stories. You can't control them all in the same way.

A teevee news show usually has 15 people in total who are even involved in the content side, no more than 10-12 news stories a night and 2-3 replaceable haircuts at the top. Even if they weren't chosen in the first place for their willingness to bend to corporate suggestions, it's usually pretty easy to influence most of them.

A major metro daily newspaper normally generates at least double that number of news stories, along with a lot of wire service coverage, has 5-8 editors and 150 or more writers. The Examiner sports section seems rather unlikely to be much influenced by the new corporate head. Despite my frustration at the small amount of coverage that soccer gets, I'm glad the papers are more independent.