The following was e-mailed to Bay Area News Group employees:
- All BANG Employees:
This Sunday the San Mateo County Times will become an edition of the San Jose Mercury News.
The current San Mateo County Times masthead will remain in place, as does our commitment to local coverage of the San Mateo market. The only physical change you will notice in the newspaper will be the addition of a logo “an edition of the San Jose Mercury News” on the masthead of the San Mateo County Times.
This is the same approach we utilize with several of our East Bay newspapers. The Tri Valley Herald is an edition of the Contra Costa Times, and the Argus and the Daily Review are editions of the Oakland Tribune.
Those changes allowed Contra Costa Times to become one of the 55 largest daily circulation newspapers in the county, and the Oakland Tribune to become one of the top 100 daily newspapers.
This benefits us by consolidating our marketing and advertising strategies around our three major brands – the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, and the Oakland Tribune.
It allows our national advertising representatives to sell a less complicated solution for Bay Area advertising opportunities, which ultimately translates into an improved revenue stream.
In addition, this change will increase the ABC Publisher Statements of the Mercury News by adding the circulation of SMCT – approximately 25,050 daily and 27,900 Sunday – to the Mercury News Publisher Statements.
We are also looking at ways to improve our coverage and local ad revenues throughout the Peninsula. David Rounds currently chairs a task force of employees from all divisions looking to optimize the opportunities that our publications serving Peninsula readers – the Daily News, San Mateo County Times and the Mercury News – can achieve. If you have suggestions in this area, please share with David, Mac or your department manager.