Valley Times, Tri-Valley Herald to Become The Tri-Valley Times

Bay City News and Staff reports —   The Bay Area News Group, which publishes the Pleasanton-based Valley Times and Tri-Valley Herald newspapers, announced Thursday that it is reversing course and will allow the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times and most of its other East Bay newspapers to retain their own mastheads.

However, the Valley Times and the Tri-Valley Herald, based in downtown Pleasanton, and San Joaquin Herald, based in Tracy, will become The Tri-Valley Times.

The newspaper group, which operates 12 daily newspapers in the
East Bay, the South Bay and the Peninsula, had announced in August that it
was rebranding many of its newspapers to "better reflect the scope of its
regional coverage" and would only have two mastheads.

 The East Bay Tribune was to incorporate the Oakland Tribune, the
Alameda Times-Star, the Daily Review (Hayward), the (Fremont) Argus; the West County Times and The Times was to incorporate the Walnut Creek-based Contra Costa Times and several other papers in the outlying areas of the East Bay.

 But Bay Area News Group President Mac Tully said Thursday, "We have
found a way to keep the Oakland Tribune and most mastheads" based on feedback from readers who opposed the proposed change.

"Instead of emphasizing regional news, we will have more in-depth
local news, and we think people will be excited about that," Tully said at a
news conference at the Tribune after he announced the decision to the paper's
staff.

David Butler, editor of the news group's Bay Area newspapers, said
the changes planned by the news group will still result in job cuts but not
as many as originally planned.

  Butler said the group had planned to lay off up to 48 newsroom
employees but now only about 25 news employee positions will be cut.

  Tully said the news group will still proceed with plans to close
its printing press operation in Walnut Creek and move those production
operations to an existing printing complex in San Jose.

       Carl Hall, the executive officer of the Pacific Media Workers
Guild, which represents employees at many news organizations in Northern
California and Hawaii, said "the number of layoffs is smaller than we had
feared, but it's still a big number."      

Hall said the 25 news employees who will be let go represent about
10 percent of the Bay Area News Group's employees in the East Bay and "it's a
sad day for journalism quality when you lay off that high a percentage,"
especially since the news group has cut many other reporters in recent years.

The company also announced to employees a number of efforts intended to increase its foothold in digital media and local news, for example by bringing back a stand-alone local news section, expanding offerings on mobile devices and adding local bloggers.

The roll out of the changes is expected to begin in early November.

       The Bay Area News Group is a division of the California Newspapers
Partnership, which is owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group along with
partners Stephens Media and Gannett Inc.