Recent days have brought dizzying change to the San Jose Mercury News. In quick succession, the Mercury's owner, Knight Ridder, was sold to the McClatchy Co. which has announced it intends to sell the Mercury News.
The pending resale puts the paper's ability to cover the community at risk. An owner m
ore interested in increasing profits than in fulfilling the paper's responsibility to the community likely would impose severe cutbacks in news coverage.Please join the employees of the Mercury News and voice your support for preserving this vital civic institution.
WHERE WE STAND
We — the writers, editors, photographers, advertising sales staff and other employees of the Mercury News — are worried about the future of our newspaper.
Several large shareholders forced Knight Ridder Inc. to sell its 32 newspapers. In announcing its purchase on March 13, the new owner, the McClatchy Company, said that it does not intend to buy the Mercury News. It and 11 other former Knight Ridder papers are still for sale. Their fate remains very much in doubt.
We are apprehensive that a buyer who does not understand our community and value the journalism that we provide will adopt what one Wall Street analyst termed a "scorched earth" policy. Under this scenario, substantial cost-cutting and smaller staffs would follow a sale. The impact on our community of readers and advertisers would be severe.
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