William Dean Singleton

Singleton was a pioneer in "clustering"—developing groups of newspapers that centralized a variety of functions, including production, ad sales, business operations and, in some cases, editorial. An example of this was the Alameda Newspaper Group in suburban San Francisco, where in the mid-1990s, a central newsroom in Pleasanton, California, did all the copy editing, layout and page makeup for five daily papers. Upon acquiring the diverse group of papers, Singleton consolidated several news sections (such as sports and features) to one local office away in order to streamline work.

In January 2010, Affiliated Media, parent of MediaNews, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The MediaNews creditors then removed Media News president Joseph Lodovic and its chairman, William Dean Singleton, was reassigned to the position of “executive chairman of the board." The Singleton-Lodovic appointees to the MediaNews board were replaced by new directors representing the stockholders group led by Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund firm which has acquired a large, though not controlling, stake. Several interim executive positions were also filled by people related to Alden or its parent, Smith Management LLC.

Singleton served on the board of the Newspaper Association of America from 1993 until 2004 and is the former board chairman. He is on several boards in Colorado, including The Helen G. Bonfils Foundation, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Winter Park Recreational Association Board, and the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center, the National Sports Center for the Disabled. In addition, he is a former member of the board of trustees for University of Denver.

In the late 1990s, Singleton began focusing less on consolidating news rooms and put more focus on the quality of news rooms. He lured Gregory Moore, the former assistant managing editor of the Boston Globe, to the Denver Post and together the two worked to improve the paper's journalism.

William Dean Singleton (born August 1, 1951) is an American newspaper executive. He is the founder and executive board chairman of MediaNews Group, the fourth-largest newspaper company in the United States in terms of circulation, with 53 daily papers totaling 2.7 million subscriptions daily and 3 million on Sunday. He is also a former chairman of the board of directors of the Associated Press. Additionally, he has been publisher of a number of MediaNews' dailies, including the Denver Post, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Detroit News. He is a cattle rancher, owning several ranches.

Singleton's empire began rapid growth in the early part of the 21st century, when he acquired in rapid succession daily newspapers in Salt Lake City, Detroit, St. Paul, Minnesota, and San Jose, California.