East Bay Times

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East Bay Times
East Bay Times front page Nov 1 2018.jpg
Front page of the East Bay Times
TypeDaily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Bay Area News Group (Digital First Media)
PublisherSharon Ryan
EditorFrank Pine
Founded1947;77 years ago (1947)
Headquarters2121 N. California Blvd, Suite 290, Walnut Creek, California 94596 U.S.
Circulation 55,787 Daily
100,200 Sunday(as of 2022) [1]
ISSN 2473-0351
Website eastbaytimes.com

The East Bay Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded as the Contra Costa Times, and took its current name in 2016 when it was merged with other sister papers in the East Bay. Its oldest merged title is the Oakland Tribune founded in 1874.

Contents

History

The original Contra Costa Times was founded by Dean Lesher in 1947, and served central Contra Costa County, especially Walnut Creek. However, Lesher began expanding by purchasing weekly newspapers in neighboring communities, as well as two eastern Contra Costa daily papers, the Antioch Ledger and the Pittsburg Post-Dispatch. Originally the weekly newspapers were free for shoppers, but Lesher gradually converted the papers to "controlled circulation" in 1962, an aggressive and expensive new strategy that called for free delivery of a copy to every household while asking readers to voluntarily buy subscriptions. Ultimately, the weeklies were converted into zoned daily editions called the West County Times, serving Richmond, El Cerrito, and western Contra Costa County; the San Ramon Valley Times, serving the suburbs of the San Ramon Valley south of Walnut Creek; and the Valley Times serving Livermore and the suburbs of eastern Alameda County. The two East Contra Costa dailies were merged into a single edition, the Ledger-Dispatch, which gradually faded away, first being reduced to a thrice-weekly insert in the Contra Costa Times, then being replaced outright by the East County Times.

Corporate ownership

Lesher died May 13, 1993. On August 29, 1995, his widow Margaret sold the privately held company to the Knight Ridder newspaper chain for $360 million. [2] Knight Ridder was later purchased by the Sacramento-based McClatchy Company in June 2006 in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. The deal was contingent on McClatchy selling off 12 of the 32 newspapers it had just purchased, including the Contra Costa Times.

On April 26, 2006, it was announced that MediaNews Group (now Digital First Media), then headed by William Dean Singleton, would purchase four of the "orphan 12", including the Contra Costa Times and San Jose Mercury News , for $1 billion. Although that transaction was completed on August 2, 2006, a lawsuit claiming antitrust violations by MediaNews and the Hearst Corporation had also been filed in July 2006. The suit, which sought to undo the purchase of the four newspapers, was scheduled to go to trial on April 30, 2007. While extending until that date a preliminary injunction preventing collaboration of local distribution and national advertising sales by the two media conglomerates, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on December 19, 2006, expressed doubt over the legality of the purchase. [3] On April 25, 2007, days before the trial was scheduled to begin, the parties reached a settlement in which MediaNews Group preserved its acquisitions. [4]

As part of a reorganization announced in 2011, the Contra Costa Times was slated to be merged with the East County Times, San Ramon Valley Times, Tri-Valley Herald and San Joaquin Herald. However, BANG announced on October 27, 2011, that it would retain the Contra Costa Times and East County Times mastheads and only combine the Tri-Valley Herald, San Joaquin Herald, and San Ramon Valley Times under a new Tri-Valley Times masthead, reducing the number of mastheads from five to three. [5]

On April 5, 2016, the three remaining Times editions were merged along with the company's other newspaper in the East Bay, the Oakland Tribune , which it had owned since 1992. The combined paper was named the East Bay Times. [6] [7]

In 2017, the staff of the East Bay Times was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting, for "relentless coverage of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire, which killed 36 people at a warehouse party, and for reporting after the tragedy that exposed the city's failure to take actions that might have prevented it". [8]

Community weeklies

The East Bay Times publishes the following community weeklies: [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contra Costa County, California</span> County in California, United States

Contra Costa County is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 1,165,927. The county seat is Martinez. It occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area and is primarily suburban. The county's name refers to its position on the other side of the bay from San Francisco. Contra Costa County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walnut Creek, California</span> City in California, United States

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles east of the city of Oakland. Walnut Creek has a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, is located at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24), and is accessible by BART. The city shares its borders with Clayton, Lafayette, Alamo, Pleasant Hill, and Concord.

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<i>The Mercury News</i> Daily newspaper published in California

The Mercury News is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiary of Media News Group which in turn is controlled by Alden Global Capital, a vulture fund. As of March 2013, it was the fifth largest daily newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 611,194. As of 2018, the paper has a circulation of 324,500 daily and 415,200 on Sundays. As of 2021, this further declined. The Bay Area News Group no longer reports its circulation, but rather "readership". For 2021, they reported a "readership" of 312,700 adults daily.

<i>Oakland Tribune</i> Weekly newspaper in Oakland, California

The Oakland Tribune was a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, and a predecessor of the East Bay Times. It was published by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the Tribune rose to become an influential daily newspaper. With the decline of print media, in 2016, the paper announced that the Tribune would fold into a new newspaper entitled, the East Bay Times along with its owners other newspapers in the East Bay starting April 5, 2016. The former nameplates of the consolidated newspapers will continue to be published every Friday as weekly community supplements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Connection</span> Public transit agency in Contra Costa County, California

The County Connection is a Concord-based public transit agency operating fixed-route bus and ADA paratransit service in and around central Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area. Established in 1980 as a joint powers authority, CCCTA assumed control of public bus service within central Contra Costa first begun by Oakland-based AC Transit as it expanded into suburban Contra Costa County in the mid-1970s. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 2,661,400, or about 9,500 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.

Diablo Valley College (DVC) is a public community college with campuses in Pleasant Hill and San Ramon in Contra Costa County, California. DVC is one of three public community colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District. It opened in 1949. DVC has more than 22,000 students and 300 full-time and 370 part-time instructors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Bay</span> Eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, US

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The San Ramon Valley is a valley and region in Contra Costa County and Alameda County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.

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The Daily News, originally the Palo Alto Daily News, is a free newspaper owned by MediaNews Group and located in Menlo Park. Founded in 1995, it was formerly published seven days a week and at one point had a circulation of 67,000. The Daily News is distributed in red newspaper racks and in stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and major workplaces. As of April 7, 2009 the paper ceased to be published as The Palo Alto Daily News and was consolidated with other San Francisco Peninsula Daily News titles; it published five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday. Weekday editions were delivered to selected homes. While continuing to publish daily online, The Daily News cut its print edition back to three days a week in 2013, and one day a week in 2015.

Dean Stanley Lesher was an American newspaper publisher, founder of the Contra Costa Times and the Contra Costa Newspapers chain. He was also a well-known philanthropist in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Daily Review was a daily newspaper published in Hayward, California. Floyd L. Sparks was owner of the Review from 1944 to 1985, along with The Argus of Fremont and the Tri-Valley Herald.

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References

  1. ↑ "Bay Area News Group Market Book" (PDF). Dropbox. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  2. ↑ Carl T. Hall; Erin Hallissy (August 29, 1995). "Page One – East Bay Newspaper Chain Sold / Knight-Ridder buys Contra Costa Times". SFGate . Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  3. ↑ Egelko, Bob (December 20, 2006). "Hearst-MediaNews ruling extended". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  4. ↑ Egelko, Bob (April 25, 2007). "Hearst, MediaNews Group settle Reilly suit". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
  5. ↑ George Avalos. "Bay Area News Group announces it will retain East Bay mastheads". Oakland Tribune . Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2011.
  6. ↑ Marissa Lang (March 2, 2016). "Oakland loses Tribune, with paper folded into new East Bay Times". SFGate. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Bay Area News Group consolidates newspapers in Silicon Valley, East Bay and on the Peninsula". Silicon Valley Business Journal . Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Breaking News Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  9. ↑ "San Francisco Bay Area News Media Company - Community News | Bay Area News Group" . Retrieved September 6, 2020.
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