Survival, not Sentiment

The San Francisco Chronicle ("Voice of the West") and the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner ("Monarch of the Dailies") have competed as strenuously and exuberantly as any two newspapers in the U.S. In their fight for dominance of the city's morning field, they have pirated star reporters, editors and columnists from each other. They have copied each other's gimmicks, from circus makeup to colored sports pages to wavy lines around pictures. And they often have told each other off editorially. When the zany, fun-filled Chronicle last year championed the topless bathing suit, the Examiner clucked: "The Voice of the Chest." When the more serious and comprehensive Examiner urged that Los Angeles-style freeways be expanded in the Bay area, the Chronicle scoffed: "Obvious nonsense that verges on idiocy."

Last week the competition finally cooled off, as both sides agreed to follow the growing trend toward consolidation of newspapers and cutting up of their markets. In a complex deal, the Chronicle will now gain a monopoly in the lucrative morning market. The Examiner will become an evening paper and merge with its Hearst-owned cousin, the small evening News-Call Bulletin. On Sundays, the Chronicle and the Examiner will combine into one paper; the Examiner will provide most of the hard news, while the Chronicle will contribute its features. In addition, the papers will merge their production facilities, at first doing most of their printing in the Chronicle's more modern plant and later in a new plant that they will build jointly, probably on land adjacent to the Chronicle.

Peace in the Morning. Chief figures in the deal were two dynastic heirs who are close friends but sharp professional rivals: Chronicle Editor Charles de Young Thieriot, 50, and Randolph Apperson Hearst, 50, publisher of both the Examiner and the News-Call Bulletin. For years the possibility of a deal has been discussed fitfully by "Charlie" Thieriot, whose grandfather founded the Chronicle 100 years ago, and "Randy" Hearst, whose father took over the Examiner in 1887 and used it as the foundation for his great empire. An end to the morning rivalry obviously made economic sense. The two Hearst papers were losing a combined $4,000,000 a year; the Chronicle claimed to be making a slender profit. Both dailies were gaining circulation--the faster-growing Chronicle now stands at 361,-000 and the Examiner at 303,000--but neither attracted enough new advertising. Says the Chronicle's able, aggressive Executive Editor Scott Newhall: "It has been a debilitating competitive fight, and the reading public has not been served by it."

But old rivalries and sentiments died so hard that negotiations often bogged down. The major question facing the negotiators was which paper would get the more profitable morning market. Thieriot demanded that position for his bigger and more successful paper. Randy Hearst, who was joined in the negotiations by his brother William, head of the family's nationwide chain, was reluctant to tamper with the Examiner, which had been their father's favorite paper as well as his first one. In the end, however, sentiment gave way to the survival instinct.

Repeating a Formula. Now that the News-Call has disappeared, the two remaining San Francisco papers intend to boost their ad rates as much as 20%.

The Chronicle expects to get most of the city's retail fashion advertising, which traditionally concentrates in morning papers, and to increase its circulation to 500,000. The Examiner expects to stay at about 300,000 but save enough money to turn a profit. Bill Hearst hopes to repeat a formula that he tried in Los Angeles, where in 1962 he merged two money losers to form the Herald-Examiner, now in the black.

The Chronicle and Examiner esti mate that they will make their biggest savings by combining production. Of the 4,000 employees on the San Francisco papers, some 800 will be fired, mainly in the production end. The Chronicle intends to keep its daily editorial staff intact, but some of the 350 editorial employees on the two Hearst papers may be dropped. Staffers will be retained strictly on the basis of seniority--a move that does not always augur well for vigorous reporting.

Such consolidations are inevitable these days. Steadily rising costs and increasing competition from suburban dailies, newsmagazines and TV are forcing more and more big-city dailies to merge, ally or quit. The Hearst chain alone has cut its number from 19 in 1951 to nine at present. Still another Hearst paper is slated for a major change. In New York it is reasonably certain that Hearst's Journal-American will merge with the Scripps-Howard World-Telegram.

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