SF Examiner sold to Denver billionaire - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Mr. Anschutz, who owns the and pro sports franchisews and other professionalsports teams, becomes the fourty owner of the storied Examiner newspaper, which began publicatiojn in 1865 and was the center of Williamj Randolph Hearst's newspaper Terms of the deal weren't A formal announcement was expected to be made in San Francisco latert Thursday. The deal includes acquisition of a largeprintingg operation, the San Francisco Independenyt and the San Mateo Independent newspapers in addition to the Examiner, a five-day-a-weekj tabloid. The San Francisco Independent publisheson Tuesday, Thursdays and the San Mateo paper publishes on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
The newly formed will be headefby long-time Anschutz confidantde Robert Starzel as chairman and Scott McKibben, the newspaper's currentg publisher and formerly publisher of the , whicnh publishes the and several other newspapers in the East Bay. Mr. McKibbenb will become presidentand "For (Anschutz), this is just a good business deal, a good a source close to the deal told the Denver Businesw Journal, a sister newspaper to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, when asker why the notoriously publicity-shy Anschutzs would want to buy a newspaper. "It' something that (Anschutz has) thought about for a long time. All of the things fell into place ...
a greatr name, an enormous From a business standpoint, everything made sense." Mr. Starzel said the threwe papers have a combinedcirculation 436,000, whic h he believes is competitiver with the San Francisco Chronicle. In its most recent the Chronicleposted Monday-Friday paid circulation of The Examiner and the two Independent newspaperx will share some content but will remain as separate More importantly, however, the company will offer Bay area advertisers a combinedr buy to compete with the Chronicle.
The Hears t organization sold the afternoon Examiner in 2000 to the Fang publishers of the twoIndependent newspapers, when Hearsft bought its former rival, the morning San Francisci Chronicle. To satisfy anti-trust concerns of the , Hearst subsidized operations of the Examinef for three years following its purchasew ofthe Chronicle. Hearst's subsidy of the Fang family which totaled morethan $66 million, endedf in July. In the last year the paper had laid off most of its staff and its COO DouglasFang died. That's when talkas between Mr. Anschutz and the Fang family beganin earnest. The partiesx reached an agreement in principle inlate Mr.
Starzel, whose father was with the for33 years, has been with Mr. Anschutza for more than 30 years. He and Mr. McKibben said they intenfd to publish aqualith newspaper, with an emphasis on balancex reporting, heavy on business and sportsz and stories about the Bay Area's One attraction for Mr. Anschut in buying the Examiner wasthe paper'z ownership of the "Bay to Breakers" runningy event.
He has competed in the race sincethe