San Francisco Examiner Newspaper Sold by Phil Anschutz to Black Press Co. in Canada
Denver Post, November 11, 2011

The media holding company of Philip Anschutz​ today sold the San Francisco Examiner newspaper to a consortium led by Black Press​ Group, a Canadian publishing company with more than 170 newspapers in North America.

Founded in 1863, the newspaper was owned by Clarity Media Group, which had bought it seven years ago from the Fang family, who had purchased it from the Hearst Corporation​.

Clarity is the Denver-based holding company for Anschutz-owned media properties, which includes the Washington Examiner and other examiner.com news portal websites.

“When we purchased the Examiner we wanted to provide readers and advertisers with a credible, second daily newspaper, devoted to local reporting,” Clarity CEO Ryan McKibben said in a statement. “Thanks to the excellent staff at the San Francisco Examiner, we achieved that, and much more.”

The Examiner became a free daily newspaper in 2003.

Expansions to its newspaper titles in Washington and purchases in Oklahoma made it “clear that owning a single newspaper asset on the West Coast was no longer consistent with our evolving business plan,” McKibben said.

The sale is expected to close Nov. 30 for undisclosed terms.

Black Press runs a number of daily and community newspapers, among them the Star-Advertiser in Honolulu and The Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio. The company is controlled by David Black and his family.

Singer Associates Public Relations in San Francisco has represented the Hearst Corporation when it sold the paper to the Fang Family and in the later transaction where Anschutz Investments purchased the paper from the Fang family.

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