Swiped this from another place (tnx GG),,

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/24/BU931KR0NC.DTL&type=printable

Quote:

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Title: East Bay papers to consolidate, cut 8% of staff
Byline: Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 24, 2011

As newspapers nationwide struggle to evolve viable business models, Bay Area News Group said Tuesday it will consolidate 11 local newspapers in the East Bay into two regional newspapers and lay off 8 percent of the staff.

"After many months of research and planning, we are taking a strategy of re-branding,

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Starting Nov. 2, the Oakland Tribune, Alameda Times-Star, Daily Review, Argus and West County Times will appear under the name East Bay Tribune. Tully said it will primarily serve the Interstate 880 corridor.

Also, the Contra Costa Times, Valley Times, San Ramon Valley Times, Tri-Valley Herald, San Joaquin Herald and East County Times will be re-branded as the Times to serve the Interstate 680 corridor and east, Tully said.

In addition, the San Mateo County Times will be branded under the Mercury News title. Tully said it's still under discussion whether the Mercury News will keep San Jose in its name.

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The moves will mean the end of the 137-year-old Oakland Tribune name.

"From a nostalgic perspective, anyone who loves Oakland can't help but feel a sense of loss," said Martin Reynolds, editor of the Oakland Tribune. "But I think we would feel a lot more loss if the Tribune were gone entirely. For me personally, what's most important is that there still is a Tribune and that we're going to be in the community and have a presence."

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Kinda sad really, I grew up in Oakland, in the 60's and the Trib was the paper of choice for my family. Lots of good stuff from the trib during that time.

Let's start a countdown clock or get a poll together to see when the fish wrap known at the Chronicle goes under:p

So what it really means from a content perspective: no change

Those were all local papers that were essentially the Oakland Tribune with a couple local stories added in and a different name on the cover page. All they are doing is consolidating under one name. This is like saying goodbye to Hayward State.

I Bear;550602 said:

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Kinda sad really, I grew up in Oakland, in the 60's and the Trib was the paper of choice for my family. Lots of good stuff from the trib during that time.

Let's start a countdown clock or get a poll together to see when the fish wrap known at the Chronicle goes under:p

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I also grew up in Oakland, in the Oakland Hills in the 60's and 70s and the Tribune was a mainstay.....I"m not exactly sorry to see it go (horse and buggy) but it does bring up some great memories of yesterdays gone....

tommie317;550607 said:

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So what it really means from a content perspective: no change

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Quote:

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..lay off 8 percent of the staff.

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Depends hugely on which 8% of former wage earners get axed this time, leaving holdouts to guess how soon the next blow falls.

Definite trend in the tide of history says paper news gonna get flushed.

As for your last statement, no doubt.

As for what is going on now, I think you will find that its the local news outside of Oakland that is going to suffer. All those papers were the Oakland Tribune rebranded under a different name with a little local coverage adding to the mix. So now they call them all the East Bay Tribune and don't have tailored news for each region. Which of course means most of the news will come out of Oakland as the big fish, though my guess is that there will be some stories out of the other communities, but only to the extent that it appeals to the "East Bay" crowd in general. I will bet things like local high school sports coverage will suffer.

I'd guess that the "Oakland Tribune" will change almost none at all except for the name. Its all the other papers on the list that are going to change.

Ditto...grew up in North Oakland in 50-70's and the Trib was the only newspaper for our family. Still subscribe to the west CC times for eastbay news, though still get sunday's comicals ! I like to follow local high school sports...and though the h.s. coverage is less...still lots better than the Comicals which has practically dropped HS sport coverage.

Grew up in Oakland during the 90's. I hate consolidation, thank you Bill Clinton. Not!

I subscribe to the trib. It has the local scores of my kids little league, high school sports, etc. It costs me $23 per year (up from $19 two years ago).

At least they are keeping the Tribune name.

There are a ton of smaller papers (the Montclarion, the Peidmonter, etc) that will expand due to this. Those papers are actually profitable. I thought the trib would go in a different direction with more local coverage.

I stopped taking the Comical years ago. So I get the WSJ for national and the tribune for local, and on line for most everything else.

I subscribe to the Oakland Tribune only for the coupons/ads, paper for my dogs to poop on, and the bags to pick poop up. If the articles were written in arabic, I wouldn't miss a beat.

tommie317;551033 said:

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I subscribe to the Oakland Tribune only for the coupons/ads, paper for my dogs to poop on, and the bags to pick poop up. If the articles were written in arabic, I wouldn't miss a beat.

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Don't have dogs, just gotta walk Puma (aka kitty) every morning roundabout 6am for a half hour.

Other handy uses for our Sunday only subscription are..

Ads for Ms Sin, the TV Guide section (aka weekly planner) for Mr Sin, rubber bands to control hair hasn't been cut in a decade, and, um, yep, that's about it.

DARN, what stock should I short, or is this trend already known to Wall Street??

That said, gonna be a fairly bleak prospect surfing the net for local news when all the regional pubs go 404.

#GoBears!

OBear073akaSMFan;550640 said:

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Ditto...grew up in North Oakland in 50-70's and the Trib was the only newspaper for our family. Still subscribe to the west CC times for eastbay news, though still get sunday's comicals ! I like to follow local high school sports...and though the h.s. coverage is less...still lots better than the Comicals which has practically dropped HS sport coverage.

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My grandfather covered the Alameda County Courthouse beat for the Oakland Tribune during the years you named, plus some.

I also grew up in Oakland, right below the Mormon Temple during the late 50's thru the mid 70's just prior to college. I delivered the Trib for several years in the early 70's just prior to and during HS. While I moved out, as did he rest of my family, I have fond memories of going up there and delivering the Trib. I still have many friends living in the Oakland Hills and Piedmont. Its a clear reflection on the perception of O-town (as we call it) from the outside. It was a great place to grow up and learn to appreciate the wide range of people who make up our society.

So long long Oakland Trib!

Oh heck. I'm sure that there is some young blogger out there that will pick up the slack for local reporting, after all everyone reads internet adds.