The Press: Divorce in San Francisco

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For purely commercial reasons, the highly competitive Scripps-Howard and Hearst newspaper chains have been nursing an uneasy West Coast alliance since

1959. That year in San Francisco, Hearst's money-losing evening paper, the Call-Bulletin (circ. 140,207), merged with Scripps-Howard's equally unprofitable evening paper, the News (101,758). Last week, for purely commercial reasons, the uncomfortable alliance ended in amicable divorce. For some $500,000, Hearst bought its partner out.

Cut-Rate Coup. From the very beginning, nothing about the merger had made much sense. Only hope of survival brought the two chains together, in the outside chance that the weld—awkwardly dubbed the News-Call Bulletin—might cure a combined deficit approaching $2,000,000 a year. What Hearst really wanted was to take over its smaller rival; the union was approved only after Scripps-Howard, anxious to hang onto its only West Coast newspaper (its next westernmost outlet is the Albuquerque, N.M. Tribune), paid $500,000 for the right to run the news side of the joint operation, leaving business affairs to Hearst.

The grudging marriage of convenience proved a dismal flop. By rights, the hyphenated offspring should have had a circulation roughly equal to the sum of its parts (241,965). Instead, circulation dived to 191,143. By rights, a single evening paper, without competition, should have gained ads. Instead, in 1960, the News-Call Bulletin's linage fell 6% from igGo's figures. By rights, the combined operation should have reduced the combined deficit.

Instead, the new paper went right on losing about $2,000,000 a year.

For William Randolph Hearst Jr., 54, titular heir to his father's empire, the new deal in San Francisco seemed something of a coup, and he could not resist a brag: after all, said Hearst, "we got a whole newspaper for practically nothing." It was certainly a cut-rate way to restore a full link to Hearst's dwindling newspaper chain—now down to twelve, including San Francisco, from a highwater mark of 26. But beyond that, the deal had other significance.

Useful Pawn. In San Francisco's morning field, Hearst's once dominant Examiner (circ. 278,173) is fighting for its very life against the rejuvenated Chronicle (300,131). Not only has the Chronicle stolen a circulation march on Hearst, but it is rapidly closing the advertising revenue gap. The ambition of the expansion-minded Chronicle is nothing less than total victory; it would like to drive Hearst clear out of town.

But since the Examiner was Pop Hearst's first paper, Junior feels a strong sentimental attachment that will not let him yield. In his morning struggle with the Chronicle, the evening Call-Bulletin (the word News will be dropped from the masthead), oddly enough, may prove a useful pawn. Through advertising tie-ins between his morning and evening papers, Hearst may be able to undercut the Chronicle rates. Furthermore, Bill Hearst is well aware that should he ever abandon San Francisco's evening field, he would leave it wide open for the Chronicle—which could then move in and publish round the clock—or to an outsider like Bill Knowland's Oakland Tribune across the bay.