As part of Dean Singleton’s plan to consolidate the suburban dailies he has acquired, the Oakland Tribune will leave the Tribune Tower in downtown Oakland when its lease expires next year, according to a report in the East Bay Express (which was later confirmed by the San Francisco Business Times. The plan is to move all of the business and most of the advertising functions of Singleton’s Bay Area papers (Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, San Mateo County Times, Palo Alto Daily News, etc.) into a building MediaNews will lease in San Ramon at the Bishop Ranch Business Park. MediaNews is calling its new San Ramon facility “The California Newspaper Partnership Shared Services Center,” a name familiar to former Knight Ridder employees, whose paychecks were mailed from Knight Ridder’s Shared Services Center. The massive consolidation will likely result in fewer jobs, though numbers haven’t been given. Some 116 advertising and business positions at the Mercury News will move to the San Ramon office. It is not known how many other business side jobs will move there from Singleton’s other Bay Area papers. Meanwhile, Robert Gammon of the East Bay Express reports that the Oakland Tribune’s news staff will move to an office building the company is leasing along I-880 across from the Oakland Coliseum. (Photo from VirtualTourist.com) [PPC, Jan. 21: Oakland Tribune Tower sold}