California Newspapers Partnership
Company typePrivate
IndustryNewspapers
FoundedFebruary 1999
HeadquartersSan Ramon, California, United States
Area served
California
ProductsDaily and weekly newspapers
ParentMediaNews (73.72% owner)
Stephens Media (26.28%)
Footnotes / references
[1]

California Newspapers Partnership is a publisher of more than two dozen daily newspapers and several weekly newspapers in the United States state of California. The partnership is managed as a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, its majority owner. The minority partner is Stephens Media, with roughly a one-quarter ownership stake.

History

William Dean Singleton, founder of MediaNews, pushed for the partnership in 1999 as part of his "clustering" strategy of newspaper ownership — owning groups of newspapers in a geographic area for economies of scale. For example, he had acquired five dailies in Northern California in the mid-1990s and centralized their operations into one copy and layout desk, and one team for special sections such as sports and features.[2]

In an effort to achieve efficiencies on a larger scale, Singleton offered to pool its Bay Area papers — the Alamedia Newspaper Group — and the Los Angeles Daily News in a partnership with the Ontario, California, assets of Donrey Media Group (now called Stephens). A year after forming the partnership, the duo were joined by Gannett, which contributed the San Bernardino Sun and the Marin Independent Journal.

MediaNews entered into similar partnerships in New Mexico-Texas and Pennsylvania with Gannett, and in Colorado with E.W. Scripps Company. In 2015, Gannett gave its stake in CNP to MediaNews successor Digital First Media in exchange for the New Mexico-Texas and Pennsylvania and cash.[3]

As MediaNews remains the largest shareholder in the California Newspaper Partnership, the partnership effectively functions as a subsidiary of Denver-based MediaNews Group, and a parent to MediaNews' three newspaper clusters in California, the Bay Area News Group, Los Angeles Newspaper Group and its Northern California holdings. Those operational clusters include a combination of newspapers owned by the partnership and newspapers wholly owned by MediaNews.

Holdings

Bay Area

CNP dailies in the Bay Area News Group:[4]

Northern California

CNP dailies in Northern California:[4]

Southern California

CNP dailies in the Southern California News Group:[5]

References

  1. ^ "Second Amended and Restated Partnership Agreement for California Newspapers Partnership, a Delaware General Partnership". RealDealDocs.com. May 30, 2003. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
  2. ^ "ALAMEDA: FIVE NEWSPAPERS PAGINATE 2300 PAGES PER WEEK". The Cole Papers. Feb 6, 1994. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  3. ^ "Gannett acquires complete ownership of Texas-New Mexico Newspaper Partnership from Digital First Media". Archived from the original on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
  4. ^ a b "MEDIANEWS GROUP INC, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Sep 28, 2007" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  5. ^ "Jack Klunder Named President of Los Angeles Newspaper Group". MediaNewsGroup.com. February 16, 2012. Archived from the original on June 11, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
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