The Singleton strategy

The Daily News essentially gutted its biz section today. Instead of having its own section front, as has been the format for more than 20 years, business now moves to B2, with one staff story (and that from City Hall reporter Rick Orlov), no more stock listings (there's a small wrap-up of market activity), and the rest wire filler. The section front is now occupied by a daily feature called KNOW, which the paper says will "contain in-depth information about everything from relationships to cars, from issues of faith to the history of the region." I love the "in-depth" part - the first day's look at disaster preparedness has a "story" that runs four paragraphs. Well, at least they're trying to generate new readers - and as much as I hate to see them slash business (I was biz editor over there in the late 80s), it's an understandable move. Even during the good years, the section brought in limited ad dollars and readership. Generic news sections like KNOW will no doubt be replicated at other Socal Singleton properties, part of the content-sharing strategy that’s winning praise. From BusinessWeek:

His ruthless efficiency is now seen by many as a necessity for newspapers. Also, he's pulling together some of the industry's top players to take the offensive on the Web. One example: a content-sharing and advertising alliance with Web giant Yahoo! involving 18 newspaper companies. "We have to collaborate now. No one newspaper group can get to the other side of the river alone," says Singleton, 56, whose voice still retains some of the twang of his youth in hardscrabble Graham, Tex., where he got his start at the age of 15 as a part-time reporter. Once a ragtag band of small-town newspapers, Singleton's MediaNews Group has grown into the nation's fourth-largest chain, measured by circulation. The privately held, Denver-based outfit now operates 57 daily newspapers including the Denver Post, the Daily News (Los Angeles), the Salt Lake City Tribune, and the San Jose Mercury News, with a combined daily circulation of 2.6 million, revenues last fiscal year of $1.33 billion, and net income of $35 million.

These days, Singleton has plenty of admirers—some of them in surprising places. Robert N. Giles, curator of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation, says "His reputation has been enhanced, and it has been enhanced out of performance. His bigger papers are doing well journalistically." Not all journalists agree with that. "He's shrewd. But you have to have shrewdness and journalistic passion to create really outstanding journalism, and I wish I saw more journalistic passion there," says Larry Jinks, a former publisher of the San Jose Mercury News who is on the board of the McClatchy newspaper chain.