Intended Consequences
In October of last year the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers were purchased by Knight Ridder, which also owns the San Jose Mercury News. Upon purchasing SVCN, the Mercury News discontinued its publication of "The Guide," an insert focused on local communities. Knight Ridder Senior Vice President Hilary Schneider explained the purchase in the following way:
From this purchase, Knight Ridder acquired a profitable group of newspapers to help off-set losses in other areas, the communities kept a crucial resource for local news...but how was this purchase affected the photographers and writers at these newspapers?
Recently, the Mercury News ran a small news piece by a Knight Ridder writer. In actuality, the writer is employed by the Cupertino Courier, which is one of the aforementioned papers that makes up SVCN. The writer's original article was published just days before being picked up by its bigger brother the Mercury News.
The question is then, does the resulting clip from the Mercury News with a Knight Ridder (as opposed to Cupertino Courier) byline help or hurt a writer? On the negative side, one should not be expecting employment from the Mercury News anytime soon. Why would the Merc hire and then pay someone when they have already cut "The Guide" and can simply fill their local news with timely articles from SVCN? On the positive, the writer does have a clip with a Knight Ridder byline if ever s/he was seeking work outside of the Knight Ridder sphere of influence.
I am obviously not an expert on the business/employment side of these things and would love to hear from others about their opinion on the matter. One thing is fairly certain, the SVCN purchase represents a decrease in competition, as well as the number of differing voices/opinions/biases that the public can hear.
We believe strongly in the importance of community journalism, which we know is highly valued by readers. This group of tightly zoned weeklies will help us extend our coverage of micro-communities in the Bay Area. They serve a series of neighborhoods that are also highly desirable to advertisers.
From this purchase, Knight Ridder acquired a profitable group of newspapers to help off-set losses in other areas, the communities kept a crucial resource for local news...but how was this purchase affected the photographers and writers at these newspapers?
Recently, the Mercury News ran a small news piece by a Knight Ridder writer. In actuality, the writer is employed by the Cupertino Courier, which is one of the aforementioned papers that makes up SVCN. The writer's original article was published just days before being picked up by its bigger brother the Mercury News.
The question is then, does the resulting clip from the Mercury News with a Knight Ridder (as opposed to Cupertino Courier) byline help or hurt a writer? On the negative side, one should not be expecting employment from the Mercury News anytime soon. Why would the Merc hire and then pay someone when they have already cut "The Guide" and can simply fill their local news with timely articles from SVCN? On the positive, the writer does have a clip with a Knight Ridder byline if ever s/he was seeking work outside of the Knight Ridder sphere of influence.
I am obviously not an expert on the business/employment side of these things and would love to hear from others about their opinion on the matter. One thing is fairly certain, the SVCN purchase represents a decrease in competition, as well as the number of differing voices/opinions/biases that the public can hear.
This entry was posted
on Friday, January 13, 2006 at 4:22 AM.
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