It's zero hour in San Francisco.
      Today at 2:30 Hearst is expected to close on its purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle but not before a federal judge hears a last-minute appeal to block the sale from a local political figure who lost out in a bid to buy the Examiner from Hearst.
     Clint Reilly is asking that the court block the sale until a full hearing can be held on the matter. 
   Reilly, a former mayoral candidate,  is arguing, among other things, that the deal to sell the Examiner to the Fang family, publishers of a chain of free weeklies, is a sham whose only intent to is free Hearst to buy the Chronicle.
     Hearst needs approval for the deal from the Department of Justice because the two papers have operated under a government-approved joint operating agreement since 1965 in which they shared facilities and split profits.
    Last year, Hearst announced it was buying the Chronicle for a reported $660 million.  It put the Examiner up for sale, as required under the joint operating agreement, but the sale offer did not include any printing facilities, and it was widely presumed the offer was an empty one, designed to appease regulators, and that its real intent was to close the paper. 
     No one came forward, but under pressure from Justice lawyers Hearst sweetened the deal this spring, throwing in presses and other equipment. It then announced that it was entertaining offers. One was known to be from Reilly, but Heart honchos would not reveal who else was in the bidding.
   Then last week Hearst announced that the Fangs had stepped forward to buy the paper and that it had agreed to a sale.
    The deal appeared a sweet one for the Fangs, effectively subsidizing the Examiner for three years.
    Hearst has agreed to meet all expenses for the first several months and then contribute $25 million a year toward those costs for the following two years.
    Reilly claims that the terms of the deal with the Fangs, publishers of the thrice-weekly Independent, all but guarantee that the Examiner will go out of business.
    Experts have opined that it will take at least $50 million a year for five years to keep the Examiner going.
     And there's some doubt as to whether the Fangs are all that committed to making a go of the Examiner, despite their assurances. 
    For their part, Hearst defends the deal, noting that it had approached more than 80 potential buyers and was turned down by each.
    It defends the subsidy to the Fangs, arguing that it was the only way it could induce a buyer to take the papers.
     

-Gabriel Spitzer is a writer based in Washington. 

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