Acquisition of the San Francisco Chronicle by the Hearst Corporation closes the long and glorious chapter of intense San Francisco newspaper competition.

Between 1900 and 1999 almost every major newspaper in this city has been bought by Hearst and absorbed into the San Francisco Examiner. The last major merger, in the 1960s, saw the folding of the combined San Francisco News, the Call, and the Bulletin, known as the News Call-Bulletin, into the San Francisco Examiner. Now, the Examiner ends more than one century of fierce newspaper competition with its parent corporation buying the Chronicle, though the Examiner will be sold, or closed, in the process.

As almost a footnote, the Hearst Corporation said it had purchased www.sfgate.com, the exellent web service of the Chronicle, and that the afternoon Examiner, known as "The Monarch of the Dailies," flagship of the Hearst newspaper empire, was for sale and if no buyer were found it would then be merged with the Chronicle.

These Museum photographs were taken a few hours after the announcement, and show some of the events that occurred around the Chronicle and Examiner buildings at Fifth and Mission streets, as television news crews arrived to cover this major and historic story.