Medianews Group Inc

Tribune Co. agreed to sell two Connecticut newspapers to Hearst Corp. for $62.4 million, less than Gannett Co. had planned to pay for them before canceling the deal in May. The Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time will be managed by Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. in a joint venture with Hearst, said Chicago-based Tribune, also parent of the Los Angeles Times. Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal said his office planned to investigate the sale to see if it violates antitrust laws.

The office of California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said it would not take antitrust action over McClatchy Co.'s sale of two newspapers to MediaNews Group Inc. but would investigate a related three-way transaction between the companies and Hearst Corp. McClatchy this month sold the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times to MediaNews after acquiring them in its $4.3-billion purchase of Knight Ridder Inc. in June.

McClatchy Co. said it had received antitrust clearance for the sale of two Philadelphia newspapers as part of its acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. But it also said federal regulators were seeking more information about a separate deal involving the sale of two California papers. McClatchy, which is based in Sacramento, said it received early termination of government inquiries into the sale of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

Gannett Co. appears to have dropped out as an independent bidder for all of Knight Ridder Inc. and may instead try to join a group seeking to buy the San Jose-based newspaper company, said people close to the sale process. Gannett, the publisher of USA Today, was expected to be a top contender in the auction. But Gannett skipped a meeting with Knight Ridder this week to go over the company's financial data, a sign it will not bid independently, the sources said.

Representatives of New York Daily News owner Mortimer B. Zuckerman met with Philadelphia newspaper executives Thursday to consider a bid for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Zuckerman, a real estate magnate who also owns the weekly magazine U.S. News & World Report, would join several parties also interested in the papers, which are among the 12 Knight Ridder Inc. properties that McClatchy Co. plans to sell once it buys the rest of Knight Ridder.

William Dean Singleton has agreed to buy the Pasadena Star-News and a group of smaller affiliated newspapers in California from Knight-Ridder Inc. for $55 million, the communications company said today. Singleton, who has interests in 22 other dailies, including the Houston Post and the Denver Post through MediaNews Group Inc. of Houston, will form Pasadena Newspapers Inc. to purchase the properties, an assistant said. The sale to Singleton, who is vice chairman and chief executive officer of MediaNews, includes four semiweekly newspapers in Southern California--the Arcadia Tribune, the Duartean, the Monrovia News-Post and the Temple City Times, Knight-Ridder said.

West Coast MediaNews, a unit of Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc., has bought two weekly newspapers published in Long Beach. John and Fran Blowitz had owned and operated the Grunion Gazette since 1979 and started the Downtown Gazette in 1987. Terms of the sales were not disclosed. The papers have a combined distribution of 65,000. MediaNews owns the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the Daily News in Los Angeles. It controls 22 other daily papers in California. Its newspapers in the L.A.

MediaNews Group Inc. said Tuesday that it will take control of 10 daily newspapers owned by Donrey Media Group, adding to its presence in California. MediaNews subsidiary Garden State Newspapers will merge 10 of its dailies with the Donrey publications to form a newspaper group that will have a combined daily circulation of 531,000 and 493,000 on Sundays. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but MediaNews President and Chief Executive Dean Singleton said no cash was involved.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was among a group of organizations that loaned at least $385 million to MediaNews Group Inc. for the acquisition of California newspapers. The foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization, loaned an unspecified amount to MediaNews, the Denver-based company said in an Aug. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.