The Bay Area’s two biggest newspaper publishers, MediaNews and Hearst, are working on another deal together, MediaNews chief executive Dean Singlton (right) and President Jody Lodovic (left) said in a memo to their employees. The purpose of the 1,000-word memo was to give the company’s side to the “negative press” it had been receiving about its debt and falling credit ratings. But the MediaNews executives also addressed the resignation of Vic Ganzi, chief executive of Hearst, who stepped down after an undisclosed disagreement with his board of directors.

While it is not appropriate for us to address the specific reasons for the change, we can tell you that Hearst remains committed to and supportive of MediaNews Group. In fact, we expect to announce another transaction with Hearst shortly which will better position us to weather the current economic storm. We and Hearst have identified several areas where we can work together for our collective benefit, as well as for the potential benefit of the industry. Some of these strategies, such as our joint Kaango and PSA investment and formation of the Yahoo! consortium, are already underway. We look forward to expanding our efforts with Hearst in the future.

In 2005, Hearst Corp. offered to sell the Chronicle to MediaNews Group, but MediaNews didn’t offer enough money, according to documents obtained in Clint Reilly’s antitrust lawsuit against the two companies. Both the settlement in the Reilly case and an order from the Department of Justice antitrust division require the two companies to act as competitors in the Bay Area. (Photo credit: MediaNews Web site)