The National Labor Relations Board has decided that MediaNews was within the law when it canceled its contract with the Newspaper Guild on Aug. 13 after merging the newsrooms of the Contra Costa Times and the Alameda Newspaper Group. ANG includes the Oakland Tribune, San Mateo County Times, Hayward Daily Review, Fremont Argus and Pleasanton Tri-Valley Herald and Marin Independent Journal. The merger of the two news operations created one entity with 300 jobs — 130 from the unionized ANG and 170 from the non-union Contra Costa Times. The changes “were entrepreneurial in nature,” NLRB associate general counsel Barry Kearney wrote, according to a story by George Avalos of the Contra Costa Times. The Guild, which worked for more than 10 years to organize ANG, said it will continue its efforts to organize the combined news operation.