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The Mercury News

May 24, 2023

The Mercury News (formerly San Jose Mercury News, often locally known as The Merc) is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiary of Digital First Media. As of March 2013, it was the fifth largest daily newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 611,194.[6][7] As of 2018, the paper has a circulation of 324,500 daily and 415,200 on Sundays.[8] As of 2021, this further declined. The Bay Area News Group no longer reports its circulation, but rather "readership". For 2021, they reported a "readership" of 312,700 adults daily.[9]

The Mercury News
The Newspaper of Silicon Valley[1]
The March 14, 2023, front page of The Mercury News
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Digital First Media
Founder(s)John C. Emerson et al.[2]
PublisherSharon Ryan[3]
EditorFrank Pine[3]
Managing editor
  • Bert Robinson (content)
  • Randall Keith (digital)
Opinion editorEd Clendaniel
FoundedJune 20, 1851; 171 years ago (1851-06-20) (as San Jose Weekly Visitor)
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters75 E. Santa Clara Street, Suite 1100
San Jose, California 95113
U.S.[4]
Circulation93,302 Daily
150,686 Sunday (as of 2022)[5]
ISSN0747-2099
OCLC number145122249
Websitewww.mercurynews.com

First published in 1851, the Mercury News is the last remaining English-language daily newspaper covering the Santa Clara Valley. It became the Mercury News in 1983 after a series of mergers. During much of the 20th century, it was owned by Knight Ridder. Because of its location in Silicon Valley, the Mercury News has covered many of the key events in the history of computing, and was a pioneer in delivering news online.[10] It was the first American newspaper to publish in three languages (English, Spanish, and Vietnamese).[11]

Name

 
The New Almaden mercury mine near San Jose

The paper's name derives from the San Jose Mercury and San Jose News, two daily newspapers that merged to form the Mercury News.

The San Jose Mercury's name was a play on words. The word "mercury" refers to the importance of the mercury industry during the California Gold Rush. At the time, the nearby New Almaden mine (now Almaden Quicksilver County Park) was North America's largest producer of mercury, which was needed for hydraulic gold mining. In addition, Mercury is the Roman messenger of the gods as well as the god of commerce and thieves, known for his swiftness, so the name Mercury is commonly used for newspapers without the quicksilver association.[2]

Coverage

The paper's local coverage and circulation is concentrated in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County. With the Mercury News, East Bay Times, Marin Independent Journal, and Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, the Bay Area News Group covers much of the San Francisco Bay Area with the notable exception of San Francisco itself.

The Mercury News's predecessor, the Weekly Visitor, began as a Whig paper in the early 1850s but quickly switched its affiliation to the Democratic Party.[12] The paper remained a conservative voice through the mid 20th century, when it supported pro-growth city leaders and pursued a staunchly pro-growth, anti-union agenda.[10] It became considerably more moderate in the 1970s, reflecting new ownership and changes to the local political landscape.[13] It endorsed John B. Anderson for President in 1980 and has endorsed Democratic presidential candidates in every election since 1992.[14]

History

Early history

The newspaper now known as the Mercury News began in 1851 or 1852.[note 1] California legislators had just moved the state capital from San Jose to Vallejo, leading to the failure of San Jose's first two newspapers, the Argus and State Journal. A group of three businessmen led by John C. Emerson bought the papers' presses to found the San Jose Weekly Visitor.[2] The Weekly Visitor began as a Whig paper but quickly switched its affiliation to the Democratic Party. It was renamed the Santa Clara Register in 1852. The following year, Francis B. Murdoch took over the paper, merging it into the San Jose Telegraph.[12][16][17] W. A. Slocum assumed control of the Telegraph in 1860 and merged it with the San Jose Mercury or Weekly Mercury to become the Telegraph and Mercury. William N. Slocum soon dropped Telegraph from the name.[18][19] By this point, the Mercury was one of two newspapers publishing in San Jose.[12]

Owen ownership

 
A postcard depicting the San Jose electric light tower

James Jerome Owen – a forty-niner and former Republican New York assemblyman – became the Mercury's publisher in the spring of 1861, later acquiring a controlling interest in the paper along with a partner, Benjamin H. Cottle.[20][12][21] The paper published daily as the San Jose Daily Mercury for three months in the fall of 1861, then from August 1869 to April 1870 with the addition of J. J. Conmy as partner[21][22] and again from March 11, 1872, after the purchase of the Daily Guide.[20] In 1878, Owen formed the Mercury Printing and Publishing Company.[23]

In 1881, Owen proposed to light San Jose with a moonlight tower. The San Jose electric light tower was dedicated that year. The Mercury boasted that San Jose was the first town west of the Rocky Mountains lighted by electricity.[24]

The Mercury merged with the Times Publishing Company, which was owned by Charles M. Shortridge, in 1884.[25][26][27] The Daily Morning Times and Daily Mercury briefly became the Times-Mercury, while the Weekly Times and Weekly Mercury briefly become the Times-Weekly Mercury.[28] In 1885, both publications adopted the San Jose Mercury name.[29] That year, Owen sold his interest in the paper and moved to San Francisco.[20]

 
The Mercury and Herald front page on the afternoon of April 19, 1906, describes the state of destruction after the earthquake in San Francisco, including the destruction of the Examiner and Call buildings.

Hayes ownership

In late 1900, Everis A. Hayes and his brother Jay purchased the Mercury. In August 1901, they purchased the San Jose Daily Herald, an evening paper, and formed the Mercury Herald Company.[30] In 1913, the two papers were consolidated into a single morning paper, the San Jose Mercury Herald.[31]

In 1942, the Mercury Herald Company purchased the San Jose News (which was founded in 1851) but continued to publish both papers, the Mercury Herald in the morning and the News in the evening, with a combined Sunday edition called the Mercury Herald News.[31] The Herald name was dropped in 1950.[32]

Ridder ownership

Herman Ridder's Northwest Publications (later Ridder Publications) purchased the Mercury and News in 1952.[33] During the mid 20th century, the papers took largely conservative, pro-growth positions. Publisher Joe Ridder was a vocal proponent of San Jose City Manager A. P. Hamann's development agenda, which emphasized urban sprawl within an ever-expanding city limits. Ridder counted on increasing population to lead to increased newspaper subscriptions and advertising sales. The paper supported a series of general obligation bonds worth $134 million (equivalent to $771 million in 2021), most of it spent on capital improvements that benefited real estate developers. It also supported a revision to the city charter that introduced a direct mayoral elections and abolished the vote of confidence for city manager.[34] By 1967, the Mercury had risen to rank among the top six largest morning newspapers in the country by circulation, boosted by unabated growth into the suburbs, while the News ran the most advertising of any evening newspaper in the country.[10]

 
The Mercury News headquarters from 1967 to 2014 is now Supermicro Green Computing Park.

In February 1967, the Mercury and News moved from a cramped former grocery store in downtown San Jose to a 36-acre (15 ha) campus in suburban North San Jose. A 185,000-square-foot (17,200 m2) main building could contain more presses to serve a booming population. The newly built complex cost $1 million (equivalent to $6.29 million in 2021) and was called the largest one-story newspaper plant in the world. Civic leaders criticized the move as emblematic of the urban decay that downtown San Jose was experiencing.[35][4][36]

Knight Ridder ownership

In 1974, Ridder merged with Knight Newspapers to form Knight Ridder. Joe Ridder was forced to retire in 1977. His nephew, P. Anthony "Tony" Ridder, succeeded him as publisher. Tony Ridder placed an emphasis on improving the papers' reportage, to better reflect Knight's reputation for investigative journalism.[10]

After the merger, the papers moderated their formerly staunch pro-growth agenda, and coverage of local issues became more balanced. The editorial board expressed only minimal opposition to a 1978 measure that abolished at-large city council elections, seen as favorable to deep-pocketed developers, in favor of council districts.[13] It supported the desegregation of San Jose Unified School District and in 1978 argued against Proposition 13. In the 1980s, Ridder supported Mayor Tom McEnery's efforts to redevelop the downtown area, including the construction of San Jose Arena and The Tech Museum of Innovation.[10][37]

 
Logo of the San Jose Mercury News from 1983 to 2016

In 1983, the Mercury and News merged into a single seven-day paper, the San Jose Mercury News, with separate morning and afternoon editions.[38] The afternoon edition was discontinued in 1995, leaving only the morning edition.[10]

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Mercury News published West magazine as a Sunday insert.

Coverage of ethnic communities

In the 1990s, the Mercury News expanded its coverage of the area's ethnic communities, to national acclaim,[39] hiring Vietnamese-speaking reporters for the first time.[10] In 1994, it became the first of two American dailies to open a foreign bureau in Vietnam after the Vietnam War.[40][41][42][43] A foreign correspondent stationed at the Hanoi bureau held an annual town hall meeting with the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose. Initially, community members staged protests accusing the paper of siding with the Communist government in Vietnam by opening the bureau.[44]

 
Logo of Viet Mercury from 1999 to 2005

The Mercury News launched the free, Spanish-language weekly Nuevo Mundo (New World) in 1996[45] and the free, Vietnamese-language weekly Viet Mercury in 1999.[46] Viet Mercury was the first Vietnamese-language newspaper published by an English-language daily.[41] It competed against a crowded field of 14 Vietnamese-owned community newspapers, including four dailies.[47]

Growth alongside the technology industry

The Mercury News benefited from its status as the major daily newspaper in Silicon Valley during the dot-com bubble. It led the news industry in business coverage of the valley's high-tech industry, attracting readers from around the world. Time called the Mercury News the most technologically savvy newspaper in the country.[10] The tech industry's growth fueled growth in the paper's classified advertising, particularly for employment listings. For 20 years, the Mercury News was one of the country's top newspapers in the amount of advertising it ran.[48]

The Mercury News was one of the first daily newspapers in the United States to have an online presence, and was the first to deliver full content and breaking news online. It launched a service called Mercury Center on America Online in 1993, followed by the country's first news website in 1995 (see § Online presence). Mercury Center shut down its AOL service in July 1996, leaving only the website.[48][49][50]

 
The Mercury News's parent company was headquartered at the Knight-Ridder Building in downtown San Jose from 1998 to 2006.

At its peak in 2001, the Mercury News had 400 employees in its newsroom, 15 bureaus, $288 million in annual revenue, and profit margins above 30%. In 1998, Knight Ridder moved its headquarters from Miami to the Knight-Ridder Building in San Jose, which was seen as an acknowledgment of the central role that online news would play in the company's future. Mercury Center ended its paywall in May 1998, after posting 1.2  million monthly unique visitors the previous year. By 2000, the paper had a Sunday circulation of 327,000 and $341 million in annual revenue, $118 million of it from job listings.[48] In 2001, circulation rose to 289,413 daily and 332,669 Sundays.[10]

Flush times come to an end

The collapse of the dot-com bubble impacted the classified advertising that sustained the newspaper's business operations. Additionally, newspapers across the industry faced serious competition to their job listings from websites such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder, and Craigslist.[48][10]

Cost-cutting began affecting the initiatives the paper had started in the 1990s. In June 2005, the Mercury News closed its Hanoi bureau.[43] On October 21, it also announced the closure of Nuevo Mundo and the sale of Viet Mercury to a group of Vietnamese-American businessmen; however, the deal fell through, and Viet Mercury published its final issue on November 11, 2005.

Digital First ownership

 
"The Mercury News" stickers have been affixed to San Jose Mercury News vending machines.

On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company purchased Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion. In a surprise move, McClatchy immediately put the Mercury News and 11 other newspapers back up for sale.[51][52][10] On April 26, Denver-based MediaNews Group (now Digital First Media) announced a planned $1 billion purchase of the Mercury News, two other California newspapers, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, with the three California papers to be added to the California Newspapers Partnership (CNP).[53][48] However, on June 12, 2006, federal regulators from the U.S. Department of Justice asked for more time to review the purchase, citing possible antitrust concerns over MediaNews' ownership of other newspapers in the region.[54]

Although approval by regulators and completion of MediaNews' acquisition was announced on August 2, 2006, a lawsuit claiming antitrust violations by MediaNews and the Hearst Corporation had also been filed in July 2006.[54] The suit, which sought to undo the purchase of both the Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times, was scheduled to go to trial on April 30, 2007. While extending until that date a preliminary injunction that prevented the collaboration of local distribution and national advertising sales by the two media conglomerates, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on December 19, 2006, expressed doubt over the legality of the purchase.[55] On April 25, 2007, days before the trial was scheduled to begin, the parties reached a settlement in which MediaNews preserved its acquisitions.[56] The Mercury News and Contra Costa Times were placed under CNP's local subsidiary, the Bay Area News Group. Meanwhile, layoffs continued at the Mercury News. Around December 2016, 101 employees were laid off, including 40 in the newsroom.[48]

In 2013, MediaNews Group and 21st Century Media merged to form Digital First Media.[57] In April 2013, MediaNews announced that it would sell the Mercury News campus on Ridder Park Drive in North San Jose. County Supervisor Dave Cortese approached the Mercury News about moving into the former San Jose City Hall on North First Street,[58] but the paper ended up returning downtown. In June 2014, printing and production of the Mercury News and other daily newspapers moved to Bay Area News Group's Concord and Hayward facilities. The Mercury News moved into a downtown office building that September.[36] According to the publishers, the Ridder Park Drive facility had become unnecessarily large for the paper, following the departure of printing operations and other staff reductions that had occurred over the years.[35]

On April 5, 2016, Bay Area News Group consolidated the San Mateo County Times and 14 other titles into the San Jose Mercury News. The paper's name was shortened to The Mercury News.[59][60][61][10]

Facilities

 
The Mercury News headquarters in downtown San Jose.

The Mercury News is the largest tenant in the Towers @ 2nd high-rise office complex in downtown San Jose.[62] Business functions occupy the seventh floor of 4 North Second Street, while news staff and executives occupy the eighth floor, for a total of 33,186 square feet (3,083.1 m2).[4] Printing and production of the Mercury News take place at the Bay Area News Group's facilities in Concord and Hayward in the East Bay.[36]

Originally, the Mercury and News published from various locations in downtown San Jose. From February 1967 to September 2014, the papers were headquartered in a 36-acre (15 ha) campus in suburban North San Jose, abutting the Nimitz Freeway (then State Route 17, now Interstate 880).[35] The Web staff was originally co-located with the newsroom staff but moved to downtown San Jose in December 1996.[48] Following the Mercury News' return to the downtown area, Digital First Media sold the suburban campus to Super Micro Computer, Inc., which renamed it "Supermicro Green Computing Park".[2]

Older San Jose Mercury News newsboxes have black, white, and green stripes, while newer Mercury News newsboxes bear the paper's logo in white against a blue background.

Online presence

The Mercury News operates a paywalled website, which is located at mercurynews.com, sjmercury.com, or sjmn.com. Its SiliconValley.com website focuses on the technology industry in Silicon Valley. It also publishes a morning e-mail newsletter, Good Morning Silicon Valley, that covers technology news. "Mercury News" and "e-Edition" applications are available for Android and iOS devices, as well as for the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook.[63][64]

 
The original Mercury Center service on America Online. Despite the popularity of premium features such as the "News Library", Mercury Center gave more prominence to content from the print paper, such as news and sports headlines.[48]

The Mercury News was one of the first daily newspapers in the United States to have an online presence and was the first to deliver full content and breaking news online. In 1990, editor Robert Ingle sent a report to Tony Ridder, then the head of Knight Ridder, on the company's future in electronic media after the failure of Viewtron four years earlier. Ingle proposed a Mercury Center online service that would use the newspaper's content to bring together communities of interest.[48] It launched as part of America Online on May 10, 1993, at AOL keyword MERCURY. It was the second news service on AOL, after the Chicago Tribune opened Chicago Online in 1992.[49][50][42]

The paper sent floppy disks to subscribers for accessing Mercury Center. The service featured a large amount of content for free: the print paper's full content, supplementary material such as documents and audio clips, stock quotes, and about 200 stories that did not make the print edition. A forum enabled readers to converse with each other and give feedback to reporters. However, the service's most popular content lie behind a paywall: back issues from 1985 onward and a "NewsHound" clipping service were popular with business users.[48][65] Readers could enter alphanumeric codes, which appeared throughout the print paper, to quickly access online versions of articles that did not make print. Examples included N620 for an article in the news section or B770 for a press release in the business section. The Mercury Center staff comprised both news reporters and business "senders", who posted press releases online in addition to vetted content.[66]

Initially, the service had difficulty attracting users, prompting the paper to add a telephone and fax hotline, News Call, in November 1993. By early 1994, Mercury Center had added 5,100 subscribers to AOL, representing less than 20% of AOL's 30,000 subscribers in the San Francisco Bay Area or less than two percent of the Mercury News's 282,488 daily subscribers.[66][67]

In December 1994, the Mercury News began beta-testing a companion website, Mercury Center Web,[49] which on January 20, 1995, became the country's first news website.[68] Subscribers no longer needed AOL to access the Mercury News's online content, and the paper no longer had to share advertising revenue with AOL.[48] The site ran on Netscape's Netsuite Web server, with connectivity provided by Netcom.[67] Access to the site cost $4.95 per month, with a discount for print subscribers. In October 1995, CareerBuilder.com launched as a partnership between the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Mercury News, New York Times, and Washington Post. Mercury Center shut down its AOL service in July 1996, leaving only the website.[48]

In August 1996, the Mercury News published "Dark Alliance", a series of investigative articles by reporter Gary Webb that claimed CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking (see § Controversies). The Mercury News promoted the upcoming series on Usenet newsgroups weeks in advance. Mercury Center published reporting and supporting material online simultaneously with the print edition. The robust online production drew significant national attention to the series. Within days, more than 2,500 websites linked to Mercury Center's "Dark Alliance" section, and the site received 100,000 daily page views over the usual traffic for weeks. Executive editor Jerome Ceppos eventually distanced the paper from the series, but it continued to receive attention, especially from online conspiracy theorists.[69]

On October 26, 1999, technology columnist Dan Gillmor began writing a blog, eJournal, on the Mercury News' SiliconValley.com website. It is believed to have been the first blog by a journalist at a traditional media company.[70][71] In the 2000s, he was joined by columnists-turned-bloggers Tim Kawakami and John Paczkowski.

Articles dating back to June 1985 can be found online for free on the Mercury News website, with full text available on the NewsLibrary and NewsBank subscription databases.[72] NewsBank also hosts the full text of articles from 1886 to 1922. The San José Public Library's website hosts thousands of news clips of articles from 1920 to 1979.[73] Much of Gillmor's eJournal is preserved on the Bayosphere website.[74][71]

Awards

The newspaper has earned several awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes, one in 1986 for reporting regarding political corruption in the Ferdinand Marcos administration in the Philippines, and one in 1990 for their comprehensive coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Assistant managing editor David Yarnold was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2004 for a local corruption investigation.[75] The Mercury News was also named one of the five best-designed newspapers in the world by the Society for News Design for work done in 2001. In 2007 the newspaper won a Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award for General Excellence, Class IV.[76]

Various staff writers and designers have received awards for their contributions to West magazine, a Sunday insert published by the Mercury News in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Mercury News website received EPpy Awards in 1996, 1999, 2009, 2013, and 2014.[77]

Controversies

In August 1996, the Mercury News published "Dark Alliance", a series of investigative articles by reporter Gary Webb. The series claimed that members of the Nicaraguan Contras, an anti-government group organized with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency, had been involved in smuggling cocaine into America to support their struggle, and as a result, had played a major role in creating the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s. The series sparked three federal investigations, but other newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times later published articles alleging that the series' claims were overstated. Executive editor Jerry Ceppos, who had approved the series, eventually published a column that suggested shortcomings in the series' reporting, editing, and production, while maintaining the story was correct "on many important points".[78][79] The series was turned into a 1998 a book by the same name, also by Webb, and an account of the controversy surrounding the series was published as Kill the Messenger in 2006. Both were the basis for the 2014 film Kill the Messenger.

Notable people

Community weeklies

The Mercury News publishes the following community weeklies:[82]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ An issue from June 4, 1852, is numbered as volume 1, issue 1, but there an issue from February 20 earlier that year was numbered as issue 36.[15]

References

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  65. ^ Harmon, Amy (January 17, 1994). "A Sign-on, a Mouse, Voila--It's Your Newspaper! : Information: The future is now at the San Jose Mercury News with an array of features by way of a personal computer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  66. ^ a b Glaberson, William (February 7, 1994). "The Media Business; In San Jose, Knight-Ridder Tests a Newspaper Frontier". The New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  67. ^ a b "San Jose Mercury News Now Publishing on the World Wide Web". San Jose Mercury News (Press release). January 18, 1995. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  68. ^ Carlson, David (2009). "The Online Timeline, 1995-99". David Carlson's Virtual World. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  69. ^ Gore, Karenna (May 16, 1997). "Apology Not Accepted". Slate. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  70. ^ Rosenberg, Scott (2009). Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters. New York City: Crown Publishers. pp. 134–135. ISBN 978-0-307-45136-1.
  71. ^ a b Gillmor, Dan (October 26, 2009). "Welcome to My Old Blog". Bayosphere. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  72. ^ "How to find Mercury News articles from before 1985". San Jose Mercury News. November 9, 2007. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  73. ^ "San José Mercury News Clippings File Index". San José Public Library. April 12, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  74. ^ Gillmor, Dan (2010). "Information safety". Mediactive. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  75. ^ "For the Birds". Westchester Magazine. January 24, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  76. ^ "Winners of 2007 Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards Announced". University of Missouri. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  77. ^ "Past EPPY Award Winners". EPPY Awards. Editor & Publisher. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  78. ^ Ceppos, Jerry (May 11, 1997). . San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on November 19, 1997. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  79. ^ Kornbluh, Peter (January 1997). "The Storm over 'Dark Alliance'". Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Retrieved June 22, 2018 – via National Security Archive.
  80. ^ Munro-Fraser 1881, p. 730.
  81. ^ "Sal Pizarro".
  82. ^ "San Francisco Bay Area News Media Company - Community News | Bay Area News Group". Retrieved September 6, 2020.

Further reading

  • Christensen, Terry (October 5, 2015). Flashback: a short political history of San Jose (PDF). Retrieved June 19, 2018. [1] Excerpted from Trounstine, Philip J.; Christensen, Terry (1982). Movers and Shakers: The Study of Community Power. New York City: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312549633.
  • Munro-Fraser, J. P. (1881). History of Santa Clara County, California. Alley, Bowen & Company. LCCN 14000279. OCLC 1673689 – via Internet Archive.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Mercury News.
  • Official website
  • The Mercury News at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
  • SiliconValley.com
  • San Jose Telegraph and Santa Clara Register front page, February 15, 1854[2]
  • wikisource:en:California Historical Society Quarterly/Volume 22/The San Jose Mercury and the Civil War

May 24, 2023
mercury, news, formerly, jose, mercury, news, often, locally, known, merc, morning, daily, newspaper, published, jose, california, francisco, area, published, area, news, group, subsidiary, digital, first, media, march, 2013, update, fifth, largest, daily, new. The Mercury News formerly San Jose Mercury News often locally known as The Merc is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose California in the San Francisco Bay Area It is published by the Bay Area News Group a subsidiary of Digital First Media As of March 2013 update it was the fifth largest daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 611 194 6 7 As of 2018 update the paper has a circulation of 324 500 daily and 415 200 on Sundays 8 As of 2021 this further declined The Bay Area News Group no longer reports its circulation but rather readership For 2021 they reported a readership of 312 700 adults daily 9 The Mercury NewsThe Newspaper of Silicon Valley 1 The March 14 2023 front page of The Mercury NewsTypeDaily newspaperFormatBroadsheetOwner s Digital First MediaFounder s John C Emerson et al 2 PublisherSharon Ryan 3 EditorFrank Pine 3 Managing editorBert Robinson content Randall Keith digital Opinion editorEd ClendanielFoundedJune 20 1851 171 years ago 1851 06 20 as San Jose Weekly Visitor LanguageEnglishHeadquarters75 E Santa Clara Street Suite 1100San Jose California 95113U S 4 Circulation93 302 Daily150 686 Sunday as of 2022 5 ISSN0747 2099OCLC number145122249Websitewww wbr mercurynews wbr comFirst published in 1851 the Mercury News is the last remaining English language daily newspaper covering the Santa Clara Valley It became the Mercury News in 1983 after a series of mergers During much of the 20th century it was owned by Knight Ridder Because of its location in Silicon Valley the Mercury News has covered many of the key events in the history of computing and was a pioneer in delivering news online 10 It was the first American newspaper to publish in three languages English Spanish and Vietnamese 11 Contents 1 Name 2 Coverage 3 History 3 1 Early history 3 2 Owen ownership 3 3 Hayes ownership 3 4 Ridder ownership 3 5 Knight Ridder ownership 3 5 1 Coverage of ethnic communities 3 5 2 Growth alongside the technology industry 3 5 3 Flush times come to an end 3 6 Digital First ownership 4 Facilities 5 Online presence 6 Awards 7 Controversies 8 Notable people 9 Community weeklies 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External linksName Edit The New Almaden mercury mine near San Jose The paper s name derives from the San Jose Mercury and San Jose News two daily newspapers that merged to form the Mercury News The San Jose Mercury s name was a play on words The word mercury refers to the importance of the mercury industry during the California Gold Rush At the time the nearby New Almaden mine now Almaden Quicksilver County Park was North America s largest producer of mercury which was needed for hydraulic gold mining In addition Mercury is the Roman messenger of the gods as well as the god of commerce and thieves known for his swiftness so the name Mercury is commonly used for newspapers without the quicksilver association 2 Coverage EditThe paper s local coverage and circulation is concentrated in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County With the Mercury News East Bay Times Marin Independent Journal and Silicon Valley Community Newspapers the Bay Area News Group covers much of the San Francisco Bay Area with the notable exception of San Francisco itself The Mercury News s predecessor the Weekly Visitor began as a Whig paper in the early 1850s but quickly switched its affiliation to the Democratic Party 12 The paper remained a conservative voice through the mid 20th century when it supported pro growth city leaders and pursued a staunchly pro growth anti union agenda 10 It became considerably more moderate in the 1970s reflecting new ownership and changes to the local political landscape 13 It endorsed John B Anderson for President in 1980 and has endorsed Democratic presidential candidates in every election since 1992 14 History EditEarly history Edit The newspaper now known as the Mercury News began in 1851 or 1852 note 1 California legislators had just moved the state capital from San Jose to Vallejo leading to the failure of San Jose s first two newspapers the Argus and State Journal A group of three businessmen led by John C Emerson bought the papers presses to found the San Jose Weekly Visitor 2 The Weekly Visitor began as a Whig paper but quickly switched its affiliation to the Democratic Party It was renamed the Santa Clara Register in 1852 The following year Francis B Murdoch took over the paper merging it into the San Jose Telegraph 12 16 17 W A Slocum assumed control of the Telegraph in 1860 and merged it with the San Jose Mercury or Weekly Mercury to become the Telegraph and Mercury William N Slocum soon dropped Telegraph from the name 18 19 By this point the Mercury was one of two newspapers publishing in San Jose 12 Owen ownership Edit A postcard depicting the San Jose electric light tower James Jerome Owen a forty niner and former Republican New York assemblyman became the Mercury s publisher in the spring of 1861 later acquiring a controlling interest in the paper along with a partner Benjamin H Cottle 20 12 21 The paper published daily as the San Jose Daily Mercury for three months in the fall of 1861 then from August 1869 to April 1870 with the addition of J J Conmy as partner 21 22 and again from March 11 1872 after the purchase of the Daily Guide 20 In 1878 Owen formed the Mercury Printing and Publishing Company 23 In 1881 Owen proposed to light San Jose with a moonlight tower The San Jose electric light tower was dedicated that year The Mercury boasted that San Jose was the first town west of the Rocky Mountains lighted by electricity 24 The Mercury merged with the Times Publishing Company which was owned by Charles M Shortridge in 1884 25 26 27 The Daily Morning Times and Daily Mercury briefly became the Times Mercury while the Weekly Times and Weekly Mercury briefly become the Times Weekly Mercury 28 In 1885 both publications adopted the San Jose Mercury name 29 That year Owen sold his interest in the paper and moved to San Francisco 20 The Mercury and Herald front page on the afternoon of April 19 1906 describes the state of destruction after the earthquake in San Francisco including the destruction of the Examiner and Call buildings Hayes ownership Edit In late 1900 Everis A Hayes and his brother Jay purchased the Mercury In August 1901 they purchased the San Jose Daily Herald an evening paper and formed the Mercury Herald Company 30 In 1913 the two papers were consolidated into a single morning paper the San Jose Mercury Herald 31 In 1942 the Mercury Herald Company purchased the San Jose News which was founded in 1851 but continued to publish both papers the Mercury Herald in the morning and the News in the evening with a combined Sunday edition called the Mercury Herald News 31 The Herald name was dropped in 1950 32 Ridder ownership Edit Herman Ridder s Northwest Publications later Ridder Publications purchased the Mercury and News in 1952 33 During the mid 20th century the papers took largely conservative pro growth positions Publisher Joe Ridder was a vocal proponent of San Jose City Manager A P Hamann s development agenda which emphasized urban sprawl within an ever expanding city limits Ridder counted on increasing population to lead to increased newspaper subscriptions and advertising sales The paper supported a series of general obligation bonds worth 134 million equivalent to 771 million in 2021 most of it spent on capital improvements that benefited real estate developers It also supported a revision to the city charter that introduced a direct mayoral elections and abolished the vote of confidence for city manager 34 By 1967 the Mercury had risen to rank among the top six largest morning newspapers in the country by circulation boosted by unabated growth into the suburbs while the News ran the most advertising of any evening newspaper in the country 10 The Mercury News headquarters from 1967 to 2014 is now Supermicro Green Computing Park In February 1967 the Mercury and News moved from a cramped former grocery store in downtown San Jose to a 36 acre 15 ha campus in suburban North San Jose A 185 000 square foot 17 200 m2 main building could contain more presses to serve a booming population The newly built complex cost 1 million equivalent to 6 29 million in 2021 and was called the largest one story newspaper plant in the world Civic leaders criticized the move as emblematic of the urban decay that downtown San Jose was experiencing 35 4 36 Knight Ridder ownership Edit In 1974 Ridder merged with Knight Newspapers to form Knight Ridder Joe Ridder was forced to retire in 1977 His nephew P Anthony Tony Ridder succeeded him as publisher Tony Ridder placed an emphasis on improving the papers reportage to better reflect Knight s reputation for investigative journalism 10 After the merger the papers moderated their formerly staunch pro growth agenda and coverage of local issues became more balanced The editorial board expressed only minimal opposition to a 1978 measure that abolished at large city council elections seen as favorable to deep pocketed developers in favor of council districts 13 It supported the desegregation of San Jose Unified School District and in 1978 argued against Proposition 13 In the 1980s Ridder supported Mayor Tom McEnery s efforts to redevelop the downtown area including the construction of San Jose Arena and The Tech Museum of Innovation 10 37 Logo of the San Jose Mercury News from 1983 to 2016 In 1983 the Mercury and News merged into a single seven day paper the San Jose Mercury News with separate morning and afternoon editions 38 The afternoon edition was discontinued in 1995 leaving only the morning edition 10 In the 1980s and 1990s the Mercury News published West magazine as a Sunday insert Coverage of ethnic communities Edit In the 1990s the Mercury News expanded its coverage of the area s ethnic communities to national acclaim 39 hiring Vietnamese speaking reporters for the first time 10 In 1994 it became the first of two American dailies to open a foreign bureau in Vietnam after the Vietnam War 40 41 42 43 A foreign correspondent stationed at the Hanoi bureau held an annual town hall meeting with the Vietnamese American community in San Jose Initially community members staged protests accusing the paper of siding with the Communist government in Vietnam by opening the bureau 44 Logo of Viet Mercury from 1999 to 2005 The Mercury News launched the free Spanish language weekly Nuevo Mundo New World in 1996 45 and the free Vietnamese language weekly Viet Mercury in 1999 46 Viet Mercury was the first Vietnamese language newspaper published by an English language daily 41 It competed against a crowded field of 14 Vietnamese owned community newspapers including four dailies 47 Growth alongside the technology industry Edit The Mercury News benefited from its status as the major daily newspaper in Silicon Valley during the dot com bubble It led the news industry in business coverage of the valley s high tech industry attracting readers from around the world Time called the Mercury News the most technologically savvy newspaper in the country 10 The tech industry s growth fueled growth in the paper s classified advertising particularly for employment listings For 20 years the Mercury News was one of the country s top newspapers in the amount of advertising it ran 48 The Mercury News was one of the first daily newspapers in the United States to have an online presence and was the first to deliver full content and breaking news online It launched a service called Mercury Center on America Online in 1993 followed by the country s first news website in 1995 see Online presence Mercury Center shut down its AOL service in July 1996 leaving only the website 48 49 50 The Mercury News s parent company was headquartered at the Knight Ridder Building in downtown San Jose from 1998 to 2006 At its peak in 2001 the Mercury News had 400 employees in its newsroom 15 bureaus 288 million in annual revenue and profit margins above 30 In 1998 Knight Ridder moved its headquarters from Miami to the Knight Ridder Building in San Jose which was seen as an acknowledgment of the central role that online news would play in the company s future Mercury Center ended its paywall in May 1998 after posting 1 2 million monthly unique visitors the previous year By 2000 the paper had a Sunday circulation of 327 000 and 341 million in annual revenue 118 million of it from job listings 48 In 2001 circulation rose to 289 413 daily and 332 669 Sundays 10 Flush times come to an end Edit The collapse of the dot com bubble impacted the classified advertising that sustained the newspaper s business operations Additionally newspapers across the industry faced serious competition to their job listings from websites such as Monster com CareerBuilder and Craigslist 48 10 Cost cutting began affecting the initiatives the paper had started in the 1990s In June 2005 the Mercury News closed its Hanoi bureau 43 On October 21 it also announced the closure of Nuevo Mundo and the sale of Viet Mercury to a group of Vietnamese American businessmen however the deal fell through and Viet Mercury published its final issue on November 11 2005 Digital First ownership Edit The Mercury News stickers have been affixed to San Jose Mercury News vending machines On March 13 2006 The McClatchy Company purchased Knight Ridder for 4 5 billion In a surprise move McClatchy immediately put the Mercury News and 11 other newspapers back up for sale 51 52 10 On April 26 Denver based MediaNews Group now Digital First Media announced a planned 1 billion purchase of the Mercury News two other California newspapers and the St Paul Pioneer Press with the three California papers to be added to the California Newspapers Partnership CNP 53 48 However on June 12 2006 federal regulators from the U S Department of Justice asked for more time to review the purchase citing possible antitrust concerns over MediaNews ownership of other newspapers in the region 54 Although approval by regulators and completion of MediaNews acquisition was announced on August 2 2006 a lawsuit claiming antitrust violations by MediaNews and the Hearst Corporation had also been filed in July 2006 54 The suit which sought to undo the purchase of both the Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times was scheduled to go to trial on April 30 2007 While extending until that date a preliminary injunction that prevented the collaboration of local distribution and national advertising sales by the two media conglomerates U S District Judge Susan Illston on December 19 2006 expressed doubt over the legality of the purchase 55 On April 25 2007 days before the trial was scheduled to begin the parties reached a settlement in which MediaNews preserved its acquisitions 56 The Mercury News and Contra Costa Times were placed under CNP s local subsidiary the Bay Area News Group Meanwhile layoffs continued at the Mercury News Around December 2016 101 employees were laid off including 40 in the newsroom 48 In 2013 MediaNews Group and 21st Century Media merged to form Digital First Media 57 In April 2013 MediaNews announced that it would sell the Mercury News campus on Ridder Park Drive in North San Jose County Supervisor Dave Cortese approached the Mercury News about moving into the former San Jose City Hall on North First Street 58 but the paper ended up returning downtown In June 2014 printing and production of the Mercury News and other daily newspapers moved to Bay Area News Group s Concord and Hayward facilities The Mercury News moved into a downtown office building that September 36 According to the publishers the Ridder Park Drive facility had become unnecessarily large for the paper following the departure of printing operations and other staff reductions that had occurred over the years 35 On April 5 2016 Bay Area News Group consolidated the San Mateo County Times and 14 other titles into the San Jose Mercury News The paper s name was shortened to The Mercury News 59 60 61 10 Facilities Edit The Mercury News headquarters in downtown San Jose The Mercury News is the largest tenant in the Towers 2nd high rise office complex in downtown San Jose 62 Business functions occupy the seventh floor of 4 North Second Street while news staff and executives occupy the eighth floor for a total of 33 186 square feet 3 083 1 m2 4 Printing and production of the Mercury News take place at the Bay Area News Group s facilities in Concord and Hayward in the East Bay 36 Originally the Mercury and News published from various locations in downtown San Jose From February 1967 to September 2014 the papers were headquartered in a 36 acre 15 ha campus in suburban North San Jose abutting the Nimitz Freeway then State Route 17 now Interstate 880 35 The Web staff was originally co located with the newsroom staff but moved to downtown San Jose in December 1996 48 Following the Mercury News return to the downtown area Digital First Media sold the suburban campus to Super Micro Computer Inc which renamed it Supermicro Green Computing Park 2 Older San Jose Mercury News newsboxes have black white and green stripes while newer Mercury News newsboxes bear the paper s logo in white against a blue background Online presence EditThe Mercury News operates a paywalled website which is located at mercurynews com sjmercury com or sjmn com Its SiliconValley com website focuses on the technology industry in Silicon Valley It also publishes a morning e mail newsletter Good Morning Silicon Valley that covers technology news Mercury News and e Edition applications are available for Android and iOS devices as well as for the Kindle Fire and Barnes amp Noble Nook 63 64 The original Mercury Center service on America Online Despite the popularity of premium features such as the News Library Mercury Center gave more prominence to content from the print paper such as news and sports headlines 48 The Mercury News was one of the first daily newspapers in the United States to have an online presence and was the first to deliver full content and breaking news online In 1990 editor Robert Ingle sent a report to Tony Ridder then the head of Knight Ridder on the company s future in electronic media after the failure of Viewtron four years earlier Ingle proposed a Mercury Center online service that would use the newspaper s content to bring together communities of interest 48 It launched as part of America Online on May 10 1993 at AOL keyword MERCURY It was the second news service on AOL after the Chicago Tribune opened Chicago Online in 1992 49 50 42 The paper sent floppy disks to subscribers for accessing Mercury Center The service featured a large amount of content for free the print paper s full content supplementary material such as documents and audio clips stock quotes and about 200 stories that did not make the print edition A forum enabled readers to converse with each other and give feedback to reporters However the service s most popular content lie behind a paywall back issues from 1985 onward and a NewsHound clipping service were popular with business users 48 65 Readers could enter alphanumeric codes which appeared throughout the print paper to quickly access online versions of articles that did not make print Examples included N620 for an article in the news section or B770 for a press release in the business section The Mercury Center staff comprised both news reporters and business senders who posted press releases online in addition to vetted content 66 Initially the service had difficulty attracting users prompting the paper to add a telephone and fax hotline News Call in November 1993 By early 1994 Mercury Center had added 5 100 subscribers to AOL representing less than 20 of AOL s 30 000 subscribers in the San Francisco Bay Area or less than two percent of the Mercury News s 282 488 daily subscribers 66 67 In December 1994 the Mercury News began beta testing a companion website Mercury Center Web 49 which on January 20 1995 became the country s first news website 68 Subscribers no longer needed AOL to access the Mercury News s online content and the paper no longer had to share advertising revenue with AOL 48 The site ran on Netscape s Netsuite Web server with connectivity provided by Netcom 67 Access to the site cost 4 95 per month with a discount for print subscribers In October 1995 CareerBuilder com launched as a partnership between the Boston Globe Chicago Tribune Los Angeles Times Mercury News New York Times and Washington Post Mercury Center shut down its AOL service in July 1996 leaving only the website 48 In August 1996 the Mercury News published Dark Alliance a series of investigative articles by reporter Gary Webb that claimed CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking see Controversies The Mercury News promoted the upcoming series on Usenet newsgroups weeks in advance Mercury Center published reporting and supporting material online simultaneously with the print edition The robust online production drew significant national attention to the series Within days more than 2 500 websites linked to Mercury Center s Dark Alliance section and the site received 100 000 daily page views over the usual traffic for weeks Executive editor Jerome Ceppos eventually distanced the paper from the series but it continued to receive attention especially from online conspiracy theorists 69 On October 26 1999 technology columnist Dan Gillmor began writing a blog eJournal on the Mercury News SiliconValley com website It is believed to have been the first blog by a journalist at a traditional media company 70 71 In the 2000s he was joined by columnists turned bloggers Tim Kawakami and John Paczkowski Articles dating back to June 1985 can be found online for free on the Mercury News website with full text available on the NewsLibrary and NewsBank subscription databases 72 NewsBank also hosts the full text of articles from 1886 to 1922 The San Jose Public Library s website hosts thousands of news clips of articles from 1920 to 1979 73 Much of Gillmor s eJournal is preserved on the Bayosphere website 74 71 Awards EditThe newspaper has earned several awards including two Pulitzer Prizes one in 1986 for reporting regarding political corruption in the Ferdinand Marcos administration in the Philippines and one in 1990 for their comprehensive coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake Assistant managing editor David Yarnold was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2004 for a local corruption investigation 75 The Mercury News was also named one of the five best designed newspapers in the world by the Society for News Design for work done in 2001 In 2007 the newspaper won a Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award for General Excellence Class IV 76 Various staff writers and designers have received awards for their contributions to West magazine a Sunday insert published by the Mercury News in the 1980s and 1990s The Mercury News website received EPpy Awards in 1996 1999 2009 2013 and 2014 77 Controversies EditIn August 1996 the Mercury News published Dark Alliance a series of investigative articles by reporter Gary Webb The series claimed that members of the Nicaraguan Contras an anti government group organized with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency had been involved in smuggling cocaine into America to support their struggle and as a result had played a major role in creating the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s The series sparked three federal investigations but other newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times later published articles alleging that the series claims were overstated Executive editor Jerry Ceppos who had approved the series eventually published a column that suggested shortcomings in the series reporting editing and production while maintaining the story was correct on many important points 78 79 The series was turned into a 1998 a book by the same name also by Webb and an account of the controversy surrounding the series was published as Kill the Messenger in 2006 Both were the basis for the 2014 film Kill the Messenger Notable people EditLamberto Alvarez artist Scott Apel Mercury News movie columnist science fiction writer Dwight Bentel Mercury Herald reporter Ryan Blitstein Mercury News business reporter nonprofit executive Howard Bryant technology and sports reporter Ric Bucher Mercury News beat writer radio basketball analyst Stephen Butler financial columnist Lou Cannon reporter John Canzano sports columnist Pete Carey Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Denis Collins reporter Tim Cowlishaw sportswriter Penny De Los Santos photographer Diana Diamond editorial writer Hannah Dreier reporter Sandra Eisert Pulitzer Prize winning photographer and West art director Katherine Ellison Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Steve Fainaru investigative reporter Dan Gillmor technology columnist and blogger Susan Goldberg Mercury News managing editor magazine editor Pedro Gomez baseball writer Minal Hajratwala Mercury News journalist writer and queer rights activist Jay T Harris Mercury News chairman and publisher Everis A Hayes Mercury Herald publisher and proprietor Republican congressman from California David E Hoffman reporter David Cay Johnston reporter Tim Kawakami sports columnist Jeffrey Bruce Klein West editor in chief investigative reporter Robert Lindsey Mercury News reporter crime author Steve Lopez staff writer Michael S Malone technology reporter Gerald Nachman Mercury television reviewer Hoang Xuan Nguyen Viet Mercury managing editor South Vietnamese author James Jerome Owen Mercury publisher Republican New York assemblyman and California assemblyman 80 John Paczkowski technology blogger Sal Pizarro Around Town Cocktail Chronicles columnist 81 Michael Rezendes reporter James Herbert Bert Robinson Pulitzer Prize winning Senior Editor Lewis M Simons Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Susan Slusser baseball writer Rebecca Smith reporter Timothy Taylor opinion columnist Philip Trounstine political writer and editor Gary Webb investigative reporter Troy Wolverton technology columnist David Yarnold Mercury News senior vice president environmentalistCommunity weeklies EditThe Mercury News publishes the following community weeklies 82 Almaden Resident Cambrian Resident Campbell Reporter Cupertino Courier Los Gatos Weekly Rose Garden Resident Saratoga News Sunnyvale Sun Willow Glen Resident Peninsula News The Milpitas PostSee also EditList of newspapers in California San Jose Mercury News West Magazine Viet MercuryPortals Journalism San Francisco Bay AreaNotes Edit An issue from June 4 1852 is numbered as volume 1 issue 1 but there an issue from February 20 earlier that year was numbered as issue 36 15 References Edit Herhold Scott January 17 2014 Rebranding of San Jose as Silicon Valley goes too far The Mercury News Bay Area News Group Retrieved June 17 2018 a b c d Day Jessica July 26 2016 Welcome to 750 Ridder Park Drive 750 Ridder Park Drive History San Jose Retrieved June 18 2018 a b Contact Us The Mercury News Bay Area News Group July 28 2016 Retrieved June 22 2018 a b c Carey Pete June 12 2014 Mercury News announces move to downtown San Jose San Jose Mercury News MediaNews Group Retrieved June 18 2018 Bay Area News Group Market Book PDF Dropbox Retrieved April 21 2023 Top 25 U S Newspapers for March 2013 Alliance for Audited Media Archived from the original on October 16 2015 Retrieved June 21 2018 Carey Pete April 30 2013 Mercury News scores circulation gain San Jose Mercury News Bay Area News Group Retrieved June 22 2018 Bay Area News Group Retrieved November 17 2022 San Francisco May Area News Company BANG BANG a b c d e f g h i j k l History of 750 Ridder Park Drive 750 Ridder Park Drive History San Jose The Mercury News Changes Along with San Jose 750 Ridder Park Drive History San Jose a b c d Beales Benjamin Bronston September 1943 The San Jose Mercury and the Civil War California History California Historical Society 22 3 223 234 doi 10 2307 25155794 JSTOR 25155794 a b Christensen 2015 p 14 Veltman Noah May 24 2017 Newspaper presidential endorsements Retrieved June 21 2018 About San Jose weekly visitor San Jose Calif 185 18 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Munro Fraser 1881 p 392 About San Jose telegraph San Jose Calif 1855 1860 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 About San Jose mercury San Jose Calif 18 1869 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Munro Fraser 1881 pp 392 418 537 a b c Gottschalk Mary December 8 2011 It s the 130th anniversary of San Jose s once famous electric tower San Jose Mercury News Knight Ridder Retrieved June 17 2018 a b Munro Fraser 1881 p 537 About San Jose Daily Mercury San Jose Santa Clara County Cal 1869 1884 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Munro Fraser 1881 pp 457 458 San Jose Mercury December 25 1881 cited in Freeberg Ernest 2013 The Age of Edison Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America Penguin History of American Life New York City Penguin Books pp 50 51 ISBN 978 0 14 312444 3 Santa Clara County History History of Santa Clara County 1922 Chapter 8 SFgenealogy org Retrieved April 18 2022 About Daily morning times San Jose Calif 1879 1884 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 About The weekly times San Jose Calif 188 188 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 About Times Mercury weekly San Jose Calif 188 1885 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 About San Jose Daily Mercury San Jose Calif 1885 1899 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Herhold Scott June 14 2016 Herhold The woman behind San Jose s Hayes Mansion The Mercury News Bay Area News Group Retrieved June 19 2018 a b About San Jose Mercury herald volume San Jose Calif 1913 1950 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 About San Jose Mercury San Jose Calif 1950 1983 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Herhold Scott June 16 2014 The history of the Mercury News downtown San Jose Mercury News MediaNews Group Retrieved June 18 2018 Christensen 2015 p 8 a b c Pizarro Sal September 26 2014 Pizarro A bittersweet farewell to the old Mercury News building San Jose Mercury News Bay Area News Group a b c Carey Pete April 15 2013 Mercury News announces it plans to sell headquarters building San Jose Mercury News MediaNews Group Retrieved June 18 2018 Christensen 2015 p 21 About San Jose Mercury news San Jose Calif 1983 2016 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Stoll Michael October 21 2005 Mercury News will shed 2 ethnic papers 5 local Guide editions Grade the News San Jose State University School of Journalism and Mass Communications Retrieved June 17 2018 Việt Mercury co chủ nhiệm mới Viet Mercury has a new editor Vietnam Daily News in Vietnamese February 7 2002 Retrieved June 17 2018 a b Delevett Peter Goldfisher Alastair February 28 1999 Viet Merc stirs emotions Silicon Valley Business Journal American City Business Journals Retrieved June 17 2018 a b Glaberson William October 10 1994 The Media Business Press Notes The New York Times Retrieved June 19 2018 a b Bui Văn Phu November 7 2005 Khai sinh va khai tử của một tờ bao Việt chủ Mỹ The birth and death of an American owned Vietnamese newspaper Talawas in Vietnamese Retrieved June 22 2018 The San Jose Mercury News bridging two worlds Pete Peterson Assignment Hanoi PBS Retrieved June 17 2018 About Nuevo mundo San Jose CA current Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 About Việt Mercury San Jose CA 1999 Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Tindall Blair December 15 2000 Goliath Arrives and a Few Davids Depart Nieman Reports Nieman Foundation for Journalism Retrieved June 17 2018 a b c d e f g h i j k l Shapiro Michael November 2011 The Newspaper That Almost Seized the Future Columbia Journalism Review Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Retrieved June 18 2018 a b c Carlson David 2009 The Online Timeline 1990 94 David Carlson s Virtual World Retrieved June 18 2018 a b Directory of Electronic Journals Newsletters and Academic Discussion Lists Association of Research Libraries 1994 pp 47 48 via Google Books Seelye Katharine Sorkin Andrew Ross March 13 2006 Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for 4 5 Billion The New York Times Retrieved February 22 2011 Levine Greg March 14 2006 Knight Ridder CEO Stunned By McClatchy Resale Plans Forbes Retrieved June 18 2018 McClatchy to sell four Knight Ridder newspapers for 1 billion PDF The McClatchy Company Media News Group April 26 2006 Archived from the original PDF on March 10 2007 a b Egelko Bob December 20 2006 Hearst MediaNews ruling extended San Francisco Chronicle Hearst Communications Retrieved February 22 2011 Egelko Bob December 20 2006 Hearst MediaNews ruling extended SFGate San Francisco Chronicle Hearst Communications Retrieved February 22 2011 Egelko Bob April 25 2007 Hearst MediaNews Group settle Reilly suit SFGate San Francisco Chronicle Hearst Communications Retrieved February 22 2011 MediaNews Group and 21st Century Media Transaction Has Been Finalized Press release Digital First Media December 30 2013 Retrieved May 2 2018 Woolfolk John May 9 2013 Will Mercury News move into old City Hall San Jose Mercury News MediaNews Group Retrieved July 1 2018 Oakland Tribune San Jose Mercury News among publications affected in newspaper consolidation KTVU March 2 2016 Retrieved November 29 2017 About The Mercury news the newspaper of Silicon Valley volume San Jose CA 2016 current Chronicling America National Digital Newspaper Program Retrieved June 16 2018 Lang Marissa March 1 2016 Oakland loses Tribune with paper folded into new East Bay Times San Francisco Chronicle Retrieved April 19 2016 Donato Weinstein Nathan July 1 2015 New owner of Mercury News office complex sees gathering strength for downtown SJ Silicon Valley Business Journal American City Business Journals Retrieved June 22 2018 Mobile Apps The Mercury News Bay Area News Group September 7 2016 Retrieved June 19 2018 The San Jose Mercury News Barnes amp Noble Retrieved June 22 2018 Harmon Amy January 17 1994 A Sign on a Mouse Voila It s Your Newspaper Information The future is now at the San Jose Mercury News with an array of features by way of a personal computer Los Angeles Times Retrieved June 19 2018 a b Glaberson William February 7 1994 The Media Business In San Jose Knight Ridder Tests a Newspaper Frontier The New York Times Retrieved June 20 2018 a b San Jose Mercury News Now Publishing on the World Wide Web San Jose Mercury News Press release January 18 1995 Retrieved June 20 2018 Carlson David 2009 The Online Timeline 1995 99 David Carlson s Virtual World Retrieved June 18 2018 Gore Karenna May 16 1997 Apology Not Accepted Slate Retrieved June 18 2018 Rosenberg Scott 2009 Say Everything How Blogging Began What It s Becoming and Why It Matters New York City Crown Publishers pp 134 135 ISBN 978 0 307 45136 1 a b Gillmor Dan October 26 2009 Welcome to My Old Blog Bayosphere Retrieved June 22 2018 How to find Mercury News articles from before 1985 San Jose Mercury News November 9 2007 Retrieved June 20 2018 San Jose Mercury News Clippings File Index San Jose Public Library April 12 2017 Retrieved June 20 2018 Gillmor Dan 2010 Information safety Mediactive Retrieved March 10 2012 For the Birds Westchester Magazine January 24 2011 Retrieved August 2 2020 Winners of 2007 Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards Announced University of Missouri Retrieved November 24 2018 Past EPPY Award Winners EPPY Awards Editor amp Publisher Retrieved June 19 2018 Ceppos Jerry May 11 1997 To readers of our Dark Alliance series San Jose Mercury News Archived from the original on November 19 1997 Retrieved February 11 2015 Kornbluh Peter January 1997 The Storm over Dark Alliance Columbia Journalism Review Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Retrieved June 22 2018 via National Security Archive Munro Fraser 1881 p 730 Sal Pizarro San Francisco Bay Area News Media Company Community News Bay Area News Group Retrieved September 6 2020 Further reading EditChristensen Terry October 5 2015 Flashback a short political history of San Jose PDF Retrieved June 19 2018 1 Excerpted from Trounstine Philip J Christensen Terry 1982 Movers and Shakers The Study of Community Power New York City St Martin s Press ISBN 9780312549633 Munro Fraser J P 1881 History of Santa Clara County California Alley Bowen amp Company LCCN 14000279 OCLC 1673689 via Internet Archive External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Mercury News Official website The Mercury News at the Wayback Machine archive index SiliconValley com San Jose Telegraph and Santa Clara Register front page February 15 1854 2 wikisource en California Historical Society Quarterly Volume 22 The San Jose Mercury and the Civil War Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Mercury News amp oldid 1151202730, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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