Metro Newspapers, owner and publisher of Metro Silicon Valley, purchased four MainStreet Media Group weekly publications that include the Hollister Free Lance, Gilroy Dispatch, Morgan Hill Times and Santa Cruz Good Times.
After nearly four months of negotiations with Connecticut-based Mainstreet Media, Metro finalized the deal last Friday. Metro’s principal owner Dan Pulcrano said with the acquisitions through his latest venture – called New SV Media – readers will continue receiving locally relevant news in print and increasingly online.
“The weekly format is ideal for communities, and that’s what we’re experts in,” Pulcrano said.
A confidentiality clause in the agreement prohibits Pulcrano from revealing financial details of the transaction, he said.
Metro Silicon Valley is the group’s flagship publication alongside the North Bay Bohemian and Santa Cruz Weekly, but Pulcrano said he has experience running more traditional weekly newspapers such as the Saratoga News and the Sunnyvale Sun, part of a community newspaper group assembled by Metro in the 1990s.
When he was 14 years old, Pulcrano began publishing his own tabloid in New Brunswick, N.J. Just five years later, he went on to jumpstart LA Weekly alongside Publisher Jay Levin. After graduating from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a journalism degree, Pulcrano founded the Los Gatos Weekly and, three years later, Metro.
In 1993, Pulcrano launched Livewire – one of the earliest online local media services, he said. He then launched Boulevards New Media Inc., which owns city name URLs such as SanFrancisco.com, SanJose.com, LosAngeles.com and others, and began expanding his enterprise.
“We embrace and push technology – we’re not afraid of it,” Pulcrano said.
As an example of responsible journalism, Pulcrano pointed to an investigative series penned by Metro writers leading to the prosecution and ultimate conviction of Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. on multiple felony charges.
As the area grows, Pulcrano said newspapers will need to take on critical issues ranging from environmental concerns to educational expansion. Busy residents don’t necessarily have time to follow developments from within council chambers, he said, and that’s where Pulcrano sees the roles of the Dispatch, Times and Free Lance.
In addition, Pulcrano said he plans to place an increased emphasis on using various Internet and social media resources to disseminate information to the communities that each paper represents.
“Let them know what’s going on and give them the choice,” he said. “The newspaper is a place where people can sort out community questions. The people covering a community through the media help create the glue that binds the community together.”
Noting that the local newspapers have been in existence since the late 19th century, Pulcrano called them a “treasure.”
“There’s a lot of talent in this organization,” he said.
