MEDIA WATCH : Welcome Reprieve

The announcement was front-page news--and deservedly so. The Oakland Tribune, so long a part of California history, will not cease publication, thanks to an eleventh-hour bailout from media mogul Allen H. Neuharth and Gannett Co. Inc.’s philanthropic foundation, the Freedom Forum.

Robert C. Maynard, the first black publisher and owner of a major metropolitan daily, broke the good news to his staff shortly after dawn on what could have been the last day of the Tribune’s 117-year history. The closing would have left Oakland the largest U. S. city without a daily newspaper.

Neuharth, the former chairman of Gannett and now head of the Freedom Forum, originally recruited Maynard, a veteran newsman, to be editor of the Tribune. In 1983 Maynard and his wife, journalist and lawyer Nancy Hicks Maynard, purchased the Tribune from Gannett.

But massive debt pumped up by unpaid interest nearly killed the paper. The Tribune owed $31.5 million to Gannett. To its credit, Gannett let the debt ride for years and ultimately accepted $2.5 million in cash and $5.5 million in preferred stock as payment in full.

The Tribune, like many dailies, has been hit hard by a decline in advertising, worsened by the recession. The Loma Prieta earthquake also hurt--although it also gave the Trib one of its finest moments, a Pulitzer Prize for photo coverage.

Even with the Freedom Forum’s financial infusion, keeping the Trib’s presses rolling won’t be easy. But at least now there’s hope.