Hearst Completes Purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle

Posted on July 28, 2000

The Hearst Corporation has announced that it has completed its purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle from The Chronicle Publishing Company and the sale of the San Francisco Examiner to ExIn, LLC. On August 6, 1999, The Hearst Corporation and The Chronicle Publishing Company jointly announced that an agreement had been reached for the acquisition by Hearst of the Chronicle. The transaction also included the acquisition by Hearst of ``SF Gate,'' a Bay Area website for online news, information and entertainment. The purchase ends the San Francisco Joint Operating Agreement.

Hearst announced on March 17, 2000, that it had entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the San Francisco Examiner by ExIn, LLC. Under that agreement, following a four-month transition period, the Examiner, which was published under the Joint Operating Agreement with the Chronicle, will be published separately as an independent newspaper.

The Chronicle, with a circulation of 482,268 daily, is the largest newspaper in northern California and the second largest on the West Coast. It was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael deYoung and has been owned and operated over the succeeding 134 years by their heirs.