The newsroom I work in just got a release that a press conference in San Francisco is scheduled to announce the sale of The San Francisco Examiner and Independent Newspapers to "Anschutz." It might to be much of a stretch to assume this is AEG. That, of course, could mean more coverage for MLS in San Francisco. Anybody else know about this?
Does the Examiner even publish during the week? They're in a joint operating agreement with the Comical, and every time I've visited it seems that it's the Comical on the newstands, not the Examiner. My impression is that it's Sunday only.
The Examiner is currently a free tabloid daily available only in SF and some of its nearest suburbs. The JOA ended in 2000 when the Hearst Corporation, which owned the Examiner for well over a century, purchased the Chronicle. In order to do so they had to sell the Examiner, which they did to the Fang family. Pretty much all they actually sold to the Fangs were the name, logo, archives, and delivery trucks--the Examiner's staff and most of its assets were merged with the Chronicle's. The new Examiner ownership didn't have the means to make it the major regional paper that it used to be, so it has been very much a small-time player in the local media ever since. This falls in line with Anschutz's long-time MO of buying businesses on the cheap and building them into something much bigger. The Examiner is almost nothing right now, but the brand still has some power and potential if Uncle Phil wants to rebuild it into a major competitor to the Chronicle.
The Examiner is a total rag that they can't even give away. If his plan is to build things up, he's going to the right place, you couldn't start any lower.
Okay, I get it now. I remember not too long ago you could sometimes buy the Chronicle and Examiner as a two-pack from one machine at the SJ airport. But we still don't know if this is the same Anschutz behind AEG, right?