Oakland Tribune - End of The Knowland Era: CCC and Gannett

End of The Knowland Era: CCC and Gannett

In 1977, the Knowland Family sold the Oakland Tribune to Combined Communications Corporation, owned by Arizona-based outdoor sign mogul Karl Eller. The Tribune Publishing Corporation, was dissolved by the Knowland Family. Eller had recently acquired The Cincinnati Enquirer. In 1979, CCC merged with the East Coast-based media conglomerate Gannett, and the Tribune was thus acquired by Gannett. That year, Allen H. Neuharth, Gannett CEO, used the Tribune as a pilot project with a new morning paper called Eastbay TODAY, which served as an early prototype of Gannett's later national paper USA TODAY. In 1979, Gannett named Robert C. Maynard (1937–1993) editor, becoming the first African-American editor in the paper's history. In 1983, Maynard -- who by this time had become publisher and with Gannett's blessing -- consolidated the Tribune and Eastbay TODAY into a single morning newspaper under the Tribune name.