Surrounded by Singleton

[...] the Chronicle's biggest turf battles have been with Knight Ridder, whose two area papers, the Contra Costa Times to the east and the San Jose Mercury News to the south, have a combined daily circulation of 422,000, which tops the Chronicle's 398,000. In April, MediaNews agreed to take four of those papers off McClatchy's hands-the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, the Pioneer Press in St. Paul and the Monterey County Herald, a small daily on California's central coast. If the sale goes through, the Web site declares, "One out-of-state publisher would now control all daily newspapers in the Bay Area outside of San Francisco, with the capability of restricting news content, limiting voices of expression and dictating terms for advertising leading to higher rates."