JOAs IN SAN FRANCISCO AND HAWAII WILL NOT HAVE SAME OUTCOME

Deals to end two papers came to pass in decidedly different ways

SAN FRANCISCO – The turnout was disappointing. Billed as an opportunity to "send a message to the Hearst Corp.," a day-long seminar designed to discuss a one-newspaper town garnered only 50 attendees.

That was compounded by the fact that the vast majority of the attendees at the event, sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department of Journalism on Nov. 13, were journalism students. Now, I don't have anything against journalism students – after all, I was one for almost 16 years (no giggling in the gallery, there) – but their perspective on the problem was a little off-base.

Nonetheless, a survey of the crowd administered by the journalism professors found that those in attendance – surprise – favored more local and state news, and disfavored fashion and celebrity news.

At the periphery of the debate was the nagging notion that the preliminary injunction that halted the closure of another joint operating agreement (JOA) – the one between the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser which would result in the death of the Star-Bulletin – would somehow affect the sale of the San Francisco Chronicle to New York's Hearst Corp., owners of the Examiner and co-proprietors of a joint operating agreement (see NewsInc., Aug. 30, 1999). The consensus is that Hearst will shut down the Examiner when the Chronicle acquisition is final.

In fact, a Nov. 13 Chronicle story discussed the similarities between the Honolulu and San Francisco situations, though the bulk of the story cited the differences. An appeal of the Honolulu injunction came the following Monday, and, as detailed inside by Senior Editor Pete Wetmore, it was upheld.

The basic difference between Honolulu and San Francisco is that Hearst has put the Examiner up for sale, while Gannett, owner of the Advertiser, has merely agreed to pay Liberty Newspapers $26.5 million to shut down the Star-Bulletin. Wetmore quotes Hawaii's deputy attorney general as saying, "If Liberty chooses to exit from the market and say we're just not going to publish, period, that's something I can't do anything about." The main legal bone of contention in Hawaii is that $26.5 million payment, not the plan to shutter the paper.

And while Hearst may have been somewhat disingenuous in its sales efforts – the portion that appears to have insured no takers being that the only pieces of the Examiner up for sale were the nameplate, the subscription list, the rights to the editorial staff and some newsracks – there is no question those pieces do have value. They would need a full-scale publishing apparatus behind them – presses, trucks, offices, advertising people, computers and not a little start-up capital – to take off.

Some potential buyers complained that if half the San Francisco JOA were for sale, they would be bidders. But Hearst doesn't want to perpetuate the JOA.

Other complainers have cited the fact that in the late ’60s, when the Newspaper Preservation Act, which sanctifies JOAs, was being debated, publishers championed the notion that cities needed multiple voices and the only way to preserve those voices was to have joint operating agreements. Today, the complainers say, the publishers want to shut down the papers they pledged to preserve.

They can't have it both ways, say the complainers, who obviously haven't been paying attention to the changes in society and business in the last 30 years.

Technology and advertising trends have conspired to make this an entirely different society today than it was when Richard Nixon was president. Today, the word "competition" doesn't mean the fight between newspapers – it means the fight to capture a consumer's attention span. That span is assaulted by everything from direct mail and TV to biweekly newsletters.

What was the big concern of the audience at the event that was designed to "send a message to the Hearst Corp."? There weren't enough young reporters working at the Chronicle. More than one audience member suggested that they would make a sacrifice to personally fix this problem.

– David M. Cole

Inside ...

• Gannett appeal fails; Honolulu Star-Bulletin to continue
• FAS-FAX delivers round of declines, but many no longer in free fall
• Annual Audit Bureau meeting focuses on print's strength
• Ad directors outline plans to win advertising, readers on Jan. 1
• New class of reporters sets stage for two more sessions
• Colorful computing future fits in palm
• Persons

From NEWSINC., Nov. 22, 1999, Copyright © 1999, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved.