Bay Area News Group (BANG) is the largest publisher of daily and weekly
newspapers in the
San Francisco Bay Area, including its flagship ''
The Mercury News''. A subsidiary of the
Denver-based
MediaNews Group
MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspa ...
, its corporate headquarters is in
San Jose, California, and publication offices in
San Jose and
Walnut Creek, although the Walnut Creek location was scheduled to be closed under a 2011 restructuring. Previously known as ANG (Alameda News Group), the name changed to Bay Area News Group in 2006 after the
MediaNews Group
MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspa ...
bought ''The Mercury News'' and ''Contra Costa Times'' from
McClatchy Co.
The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...
Most production aspects have now moved to ''The Mercury News'' facilities in
San Jose, California.
Print
The structure allows the company to share stories between its various newspapers, meaning one
reporter
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
can get the story for all the publications.
BANG publishes three daily newspapers:
* ''
The Mercury News (San Jose)''
* ''
East Bay Times''
* ''
Marin Independent Journal''
Bay Area News Group's newspapers collectively cover the East Bay, South Bay, Peninsula, and Marin County. It has beat reporters covering San Jose and Oakland but none for San Francisco, where it cedes coverage to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', its main competitor. On the other hand, the ''Chronicle'' does not cover the South Bay as thoroughly as BANG does via ''The Mercury News''. Bay Area News Group's only coverage in the North Bay is Marin County.
2011 restructuring
On August 23, 2011, the company announced the reorganization of 11 of its newspapers, with shuttering of all of its East Bay
nameplates under two new publications as of November 2, 2011.
The planned merger and publication reorganization was modified in October 2011, when BANG decided to scrap plans to launch the ''East Bay Tribune'' and instead consolidate its
East Bay newspapers under the ''Oakland Tribune'' name.
* The ''Oakland Tribune'', ''Alameda Times-Star'', ''Hayward Daily Review'', ''Fremont Argus'' and ''West County Times'' were scheduled to publish their last editions on November 1, 2011.
The following day, subscribers were to get copies of the new ''East Bay Tribune''; instead the mastheads were made local editions of the ''Oakland Tribune''.
* The ''Contra Costa Times'', ''San Ramon Valley Times'', ''East County Times'', ''Tri-Valley Herald'' and ''San Joaquin Herald'' were scheduled to become the new ''
The Times''.
* The ''San Mateo Times'' was scheduled to publish its last issue on November 1, 2011. As of November 2, 2011, subscribers were to get localized versions of the ''San Jose Mercury News''.
2016 restructuring
In March 2016, BANG announced it would further consolidate its newspapers (other than the ''Marin Independent Journal'') down to two: ''The East Bay Times'' and ''The Mercury News'', eliminating the ''Oakland Tribune'' and the other papers.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Companies based in Oakland, California
Newspaper companies of the United States
MediaNews Group
Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area
Companies based in San Jose, California