Evolution of newspapers serving Palo Alto Evolution of newspapers serving Palo Alto (February 18, 2005)

After decades of relative stability, in the late 1970s newspapers serving Palo Alto and the Midpeninsula began a series of dramatic changes, including these highlights:

1978: The locally owned Palo Alto Times and Redwood City Tribune (Peninsula Newspapers, Inc.) sell out to the Chicago-based Tribune Company.

1979: On April 1, the two papers were combined into the Peninsula Times Tribune. In early October Bill Johnson and a group of local investors launch the Palo Alto Weekly.

1993: The Tribune Company shuts down the Peninsula Times Tribune just shy of the organization's 100th anniversary and sells off the assets. The Weekly launches its Friday issue, focusing on arts and entertainment and real estate.

1995: Palo Alto Daily News launched by Jim Pavelich, Dave Danforth and Dave Price of Colorado, where they had started other free dailies.

1998: Danforth is forced out of the operation -- but retains a business interest -- in a bitter dispute in which Danforth claimed the Daily's news coverage was tailored to attract advertisers. Danforth lost a subsequent breach-of-faith lawsuit, however.

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