The December 22, 2011 front page of the San Jose Mercury News |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | MediaNews Group |
| Editor | David Butler |
| Founded | 1851 (as the San Jose Weekly Visitor) |
| Headquarters | 750 Ridder Park Drive San Jose, California 95190 USA |
| Circulation | At 2011: 577,665 Daily 636,999 Sunday[1] |
| ISSN | 0747-2099 |
| Official website | mercurynews.com |
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site however, "San Jose" is absent, and "Silicon Valley" appears above the Mercury News website logo. The paper is owned by Media News Group. Its headquarters and printing plant are located in North San Jose next to the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880). The Mercury News encompasses all other Bay Area newspapers owned by MediaNewsGroup, including the Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and Marin Independent Journal, each of which are branded as "an edition of the San Jose Mercury News," which accounts the newspaper's high circulation.
The Mercury News was one of the first newspapers to publish on the internet and during the 1980's and 1990's was considered to be the best newspaper in Northern California.
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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. The afternoon edition was later abandoned.
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 messenger of the gods as well as the god of commerce and thieves, 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. Ridder bought the Mercury and News in 1952. Ridder merged with Knight to form Knight Ridder in 1974.
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. McClatchy decided that it would be expedient to explore the immediate resale of the Mercury News.[2]
On April 26, 2006, it was announced that Denver-based MediaNews Group would buy the Mercury News.[3] However, on June 12, 2006, federal regulators from the U.S. Department of Justice asked for more time to review the purchase, citing possible anti-trust concerns over MediaNews' ownership of other newspapers in the region. Although approval by regulators and completion of MediaNews' acquisition was announced on August 2, 2006, a lawsuit claiming antitrust violations by MediaNews and the Hearst Corporation had also been filed in July 2006.[4]
The suit, which sought to undo the purchase of both the Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times, was scheduled to go to trial on April 30, 2007. While extending until that date a preliminary injunction which prevented collaboration of local distribution and national advertising sales by the two media conglomerates, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on December 19, 2006 expressed doubt over the legality of the purchase.[5] On April 25, 2007, days before the trial was scheduled to begin, the parties reached a settlement in which MediaNews preserved its acquisitions.[6]
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.
The paper's local coverage and circulation is concentrated on Silicon Valley, the Peninsula, the East Bay, Marin County and San Francisco. Regular columnists include Gary Richards (transportation), Mark Purdy (sports), Lisa M. Krieger (Stanford), and Chris O'Brien (business).
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