The consolidation of the Contra Costa Times with Dean Singleton’s ANG Newspapers, such as the Oakland Tribune, has begun, a story in this morning’s Coco Times indicates.

• Kevin G. Keane, executive editor of Dean Singleton’s ANG Newspapers including the Oakland Tribune, has been promoted to a new position — vice president of news for California Newspapers Partnership-North — with oversight of news operations of ANG and the Contra Costa Times.

• Chris Lopez, executive editor of the Contra Costa Times, will continue in that post but will report to Keane. Lopez has been at the Coco Times since 2000, starting as an assistant managing editor, then ME and then executive editor. Previously he was at the Denver Post, where he was part of the team that won a Pulitzer in 1999 for coverage of the Columbine High School shootings.

• ANG Managing Editor Pete Wevurski will become editor of ANG and report to Keane.

• Mike Jung, vice president of advertising and marketing for Contra Costa Newspapers, expands his responsibilities to include ANG Newspapers.

• Dennis Miller, senior vice president of operations for ANG Newspapers, becomes senior vice president in charge of all production operations in the Bay Area for MediaNews.

“We will have more people reporting on local news than any other organization in the country,” Keane said.

Keane said he believes it will be possible to greatly improve how the various papers deliver stories via the Internet.

“We are not just a newspaper company any longer,” Keane said. “We are an information company. We will put out the information on the Web in any format that the readers in the community want. Podcasts, video casts, blogs.”

To deal with duplication between ANG and the Coco Times, the plan is to “deploy reporters to handle areas and topics not being covered now,” he said. Editors listed San Francisco, Solano County and San Joaquin County as areas for expansion.