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The San Jose Mercury News is the major newspaper in San Jose, California and the Silicon Valley. The paper is owned by The McClatchy Company, which plans to sell it. Its sprawling headquarters and printing plant are located in North San Jose next to the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880).
In the late 1990s, as Silicon Valley and the Mercury News soared in national prominence, then-owner Knight Ridder moved its headquarters from Miami to an office tower in downtown San Jose to be closer to its rising star. The paper has a daily circulation of 274,000 and a Sunday circulation of 303,000.
The paper is locally nicknamed 'The Merc'.
History
The San Jose Mercury was founded in 1851 as the San Jose Weekly Visitor, while the San Jose News was founded in 1883. In 1942 the Mercury purchased the News and continued publishing both newspapers, with the Mercury as the morning paper and the News as the evening paper. In 1983 the papers were merged into the San Jose Mercury News, with morning and afternoon editions. Eventually the less-popular afternoon edition was dropped, so at present the newspaper publishes only as a morning paper.
The paper says that the name "Mercury" refers to the importance of the mercury industry during the California Gold Rush, when the city's New Almaden Mines (now Almaden Quicksilver County Park) were the largest producer of mercury in North America. The name has a dual meaning, as Mercury is the Roman god of commerce known for his swiftness, and the name Mercury is commonly used for newspapers without the quicksilver association.
Because of its location in Silicon Valley, the Mercury News has covered many of the key events in the history of computing.
In August 1996, the newspaper published Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance", a series of investigative articles linking the CIA to Nicaraguan contras organizing the distribution of cocaine into United States. While first enthusiastic about the story, eight months later the executive editor would claim the story was faulty, in a letter to readers in which he stated: "I believe that we fell short at every step of our process."
On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company announced their agreement to purchase Knight Ridder, the United States' second largest chain of daily newspapers and owner of the Mercury News. McClatchy decided that it would be expedient to explore the immediate resale of the Mercury News. *
On April 26, 2006, it was announced that the MediaNews Group will buy the Mercury News. * However, on June 12, 2006, federal regulators from the U.S. Department of Justice have asked for more time to review the purchase, citing possible anti-trust concerns over MediaNews Group's ownership of other newspapers in the region.
Awards
The newspaper has earned several awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes, one in 1986 for reporting regarding political corruption in the Ferdinand Marcos administration in the Philippines, and one in 1989 for their comprehensive coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Mercury News was also named one of the five best-designed newspapers in the world by the Society for News Design for work done in 2001.
Coverage
Much of the paper's local coverage is concentrated on Silicon Valley, the Peninsula, the southern portion of the East Bay, and Santa Cruz. Therefore, it is most widely available in those areas, as well as San Francisco. However, because Knight Ridder also owned the Contra Costa Times and the Monterey Herald (of which all three are pending sale to MediaNews Group, the Mercury News has not expanded its distribution or coverage in those areas.
Pricing
For some time, the normal cost of a paper purchased Monday through Saturday was 35 cents (25 cents in some areas and 1 Dollar everywhere on Sundays). In 2005 the price was increased to 50 cents.(the price of the Sunday paper remains at $1.00) The price increase came at a time of falling revenues and was an effort to increase those revenues.
References
- "Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for $4.5 Billion" by Katharine Q. Seelye and Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times, March 13, 2006.
External links
Newspapers of California | Knight Ridder publications | San Jose, California | San Francisco Bay Area newspapers
"San Jose Mercury News"