Hearst Closes S.F. Chronicle Deal
The Hearst Corp. completed its $660 million purchase of the rival San Francisco Chronicle on Friday and kept its promise to sell its venerable San Francisco Examiner to a local publisher of free papers.
Hearst announced the changes in ownership a day after U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled out antitrust questions in Hearst’s purchase of the Chronicle.
The judge also said that nothing in the law requires Hearst to give the Examiner--or its promised subsidy of $66 million over three years--to publisher Ted Fang, who is closely allied with Mayor Willie Brown and other Democratic politicians in the city.
The judge’s ruling removed the pressure Hearst was under for months to come up with an alternative to closing down the Examiner, and Hearst’s lawyers initially reacted by declining to commit to completing the media company’s deal with Fang. But Hearst decided late Friday to keep its promise nonetheless.
“We had a contract with the Chronicle and a contract with the Fangs. We just completed them,” said Hearst spokeswoman Debra Shriver.
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