Bono & McNamee chose Forbes for "tech central" over….Mercury News

August 11, 2006 | Matt Marshall

That’s right. Earlier this year, when Mercury News parent Knight Ridder, the nation’s second largest newspaper company, was on the block, we began hearing names of people who were interested.

McClatchy eventually prevailed in the deal, and MediaNews subsequently has bought the Mercury News from McClatchy.

But at one point, word got to us little folk in the trenches: Big Silicon Valley buyout firm Elevation Partners, led by Roger McNamee and U2′s Bono, among others, had considered buying the Mercury News from KR, to turn it into a “tech central” of news.

They didn’t want the rest of the chain, though. Needless to say, they passed on the deal. So we aren’t surprised that Elevation has just made a major investment in Forbes. They will pursue their vision there instead. McNamee wouldn’t comment on the original Merc plans. But here’s what McNamee did say about Forbes, when he talked with our colleague Michelle Quinn recently. Comparing Forbes with other possibilities, yet not singling out KR, he said: “They [Forbes] didn’t hold the web property hostage to the mothership.” McNamee is thinking big on this one. Reuters, Dow Jones & al — be warned.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.