Examiner cuts back on home delivery days

The Examiner announced Thursday that it only deliver papers to homes two days a week in its three markets, San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

The Examiner is also moving its "weekend edition" from Saturday to Sunday starting July 13.

As a result, the Examiner will no longer be distributed to homes or businesses on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays. On those days, the paper will only be available in news racks and stores.

The move will likely reduce complaints about unwanted Examiners being thrown on driveways and doorsteps.

Like other newspapers that have reduced the number of days they publish, the Examiner is emphasizing that its web site will be beefed up.

It wasn't immediately known why billionaire oilman Phil Anschutz would trim the sales of his newspapers. With oil at $122 a barrel, gas at $4 a gallon and movie tickets at $9.50 (he's the nation's largest owner of cinemas), it's hard to imagine him noticing that his newspapers were losing money.

But there is a famous story about Anschutz's aversion to losing money. He set up his son-in-law, Tim Brown, with an AM radio station in Denver in 2002. The 10,000-watt station lost money, which reportedly angered Anschutz. One day in 2004, Anschutz walked into the station and ordered that the power be cut immediately. He shut down the station on the spot. As employees walked out of the darkened building, they were handed their final checks. His son-in-law was quoted in the Denver Post as saying it was the hardest day of his life.