Missed parade

As a 58-year resident of Upland, as well as being active in several local organizations, I am very interested in what is going on in the local area.

[Observer]

I see happenings all the time that are in the D B's own back yard. Never to be seen in this paper, it's only a matter of time and this sorry excuse for a newspaper will be history.

[Larry Hernandez of Upland]

I know its news to most local readers, but the Daily Bulletin is only a link in a very large chain of papers operated by the MediaNews Group. MediaNews is the fourth largest newspaper company in the USA, with 53 daily papers under its ownership.

Locally, the San Bernardino Sun, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, The Pasadena Star News are sisters to the Daily Bulletin and boy, does it show when one compares one next to the other on a daily basis. It is almost the same newspaper with a different name. The owner of MediaNews, William Dean Singleton, originated the practice of "clustering" or creating a regional template of stories that are replicated in all of his papers in a given area. This is why the Daily Bulletin passed off coverage of the Fourth of July parade in Claremont as "local" coverage in Ontario. There is some truly local news reporting going on, but mostly it is low cost police blotter stuff and simple stories that don't require actual reporters doing in-depth work. It's all about the bottom line. And at the corporate level, that line is phat.

Singleton and MediaNews generate huge profits, and accrue golden political chits by shielding favorite Republican politicians from revealing investigations like David Dreier and Jerry Lewis, but local news and investigative reporting takes on the chin with every paper swallowed up.