Another Southland Paper Is Acquired by Singleton

Newspaper magnate William Dean Singleton said Thursday he would acquire the San Bernardino Sun as part of a rapid expansion of his reach in the Southern California marketplace.

Gannett Co., the Sun’s owner, said it would add the 80,000-circulation daily to a partnership already formed by Donrey Media Group and Garden State Newspapers, affiliates of Singleton’s privately held MediaNews Group.

In exchange for the paper, Gannett will receive an undisclosed share of the partnership’s earnings, take one seat on its seven-member board and sign a 10-year contract to keep printing some editions of its flagship USA Today on the Sun’s presses, Singleton said.

With the Sun, Singleton’s footprint in Southern California stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern edge of the Inland Empire. Upon completion of the deal, his Garden State Newspapers would publish or co-publish 23 daily newspapers in California with a combined daily circulation of nearly 920,000--about two-thirds of it in Southern California.

His companies also own the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Pasadena Star-News, Whittier Daily News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune. “I think we’ve made the footprint big enough to get down to business now,” Singleton said.

Singleton has earned a reputation as a zealous cost-cutter, but said the partnership papers in the Inland Empire would save money by sharing resources, not through layoffs. He said he anticipates retaining the Sun’s 500 employees, about a fifth of whom are on the editorial staff, at their current salaries.

“He’s planning on economies of scale,” said USC journalism professor Bryce Nelson. “For those concerned about journalistic quality, it’s not a happy day.”

Editors at the Sun said they were pleased.

“We’re now part of what amounts to a regional behemoth,” said Executive Editor O. Ricardo Pimentel. He added, “Combining resources makes some sense but I don’t know what it all means yet.”

Thursday’s announcement also intensifies competition for readers and advertisers in the Inland Empire, a vast region viewed as a key area for growth by both Times Mirror Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and A.H. Belo Corp., publisher of the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Robert G. Magnuson, The Times’ senior vice president for regions, said the paper plans to increase its presence in the Inland Empire in the next several months. He said editors had not yet decided what form that presence would take.

“We are focusing a lot of attention on the Inland Empire and we take this market very seriously,” he said. “We’re going to compete head to head.”

Marcia McQuern, editor and publisher of the Riverside Press-Enterprise, said Singleton’s move “in and of itself does not affect us. All it is is a management change. I’ve looked at his papers and there’s no reason to panic.”

Singleton’s partnership with Donrey already includes the Ontario-based Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the Hemet News, the Valley Times of Moreno and the Redlands Daily Facts. MediaNews also has an agreement with The Times to distribute pre-printed circulars. That deal has been the subject of an inquiry by the Justice Department, which Singleton said was “virtually” complete.

“It’s really nothing,” he said. “All we were doing together is making it easier for advertisers to buy pre-prints.”