Elk Grove Citizen - McClathy's Sac Bee in JOA?

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As a subscriber to both the Elk Grove Citizen and Sacramento Bee, we received this letter moments ago.

According to the letter it states:

"As part of our ongoing commitment to provide exceptional value to each of our subscribers, the Elk Grove Citizen and Sacramento Bee have signed an agreement to include the Sunday Bee as part of every Citizen subscription."

Does this letter suggest:
a.) The Citizen will have a new Sunday edition?
b.) The Bee and Citizen are setting up a joint operating agreement?

Not really sure for right now. A few calls need to be made.

But it looks like a lot more to tote out to the recycle bin, that's for sure!

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U P D A T E

According to one source at the Citizen, if you do not subscribe to the Bee but get the Citizen, you will get a free copy of the Sunday Bee delivered to your doorstep every Sunday morning. For you unlucky ones who subscribe to both the Bee and Citizen, well you just have more fish-wrap to throw in the recycle.

From our point of view, two things seem to be happening. The Bee appears to be playing a game of smoke and mirrors with their advertisers by claiming a higher circulation number for the Sunday papers.

The Herburger's motives are a little more difficult to get a handle on. For the 16 plus years we've been reading the Citizen, on more than one occasion Publisher Roy Herburger has taken issue with the daily newspaper from "downtown" in everything from the demise of the Sacramento Union to the invasion of his turf by the Bee's local editions.

If nothing else, it was fun to read Roy poke his finger in the eye of the almighty McClathy's. Why get so cozy all of a sudden?

Is this nothing more crass than a quick money grab by the Herburger's to make up for shrinking ad revenues? Say it ain't so Old Dad!

Well, at least one section of Citizen is awash in paid advertising and should be for months to come - the paid foreclosure notices that are as plentiful as mortgage brokers were just a few years ago.