The Santa Rosa Press Democrat is reportedly in talks of a buyout from the Hearst Corp., the New York-based company that owns the San Francisco Chronicle. The potential purchase was first reported Feb. 6 by the online news source the San Francisco Standard.
The Press Democrat is currently owned by Sonoma Media Investments, led by Managing Partner Darius Anderson, a real estate developer and lobbyist. Local investors in the PD include former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, former Dolby Sound CEO Bill Jasper, former Congressman Doug Bosco, retired Intel executive Les Vadasz, and Jean Schulz, wife of the late “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz.
According to the Standard, a source close to the deal told the outlet the purchase would be in the “low eight figures” and close in the spring. The buyout would reportedly include the Press Democrat daily newspaper, as well as its satellite publications the Sonoma Index-Tribune, the Petaluma Argus-Courier, Sonoma magazine and the North Bay Business Journal. If the purchase were to go through, the two newsrooms would remain separate, but administration and business departments would merge, the Standard reported.
Anderson did not respond to an NBb request for comment. Jasper and Vadasz referred inquiries about the deal to Anderson.
Founded in 1897, the Press Democrat was purchased by the New York Times in the 1990s, which sold the publication to Halifax Media Group in 2011, which in turn sold it to Anderson’s investor group in 2012.
The PD and Chronicle have over the years closely competed in daily coverage of the North Bay. The Press Democrat beat out the Chronicle for a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on the 2017 North Bay wildfires. Later, the Chronicle got the scoop in the investigation of disgraced former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli, the center of multiple accusations of sexual assault—which set the PD on its heels during the rocky tenure of former editor Rick Green.
