To those who noticed a revised name on the masthead — San Diego Metropolitan, Uptown Examiner & Daily Business Report — congratulations for the sharp eye. For those who missed it, we intended some graphic subtlety; take another look at the cover.
    The Metropolitan is pleased to announce its purchase of the Uptown Examiner Group and Uptown San Diego Examiner, a newspaper of general circulation since 1937, and adjudicated by the San Diego Superior Court to publish legal notices in and for the City and County of San Diego since 1966.
    What’s this all about?
    Reliable and official public notices, like a free press, are essential to a democracy. Federal, state and local laws require that all sorts of public notices be published in an adjudicated newspaper of general circulation, from Fictitious Business Name Statements to formal Death Notices, from a Court Summons to Trustee Sales, from Applications to Sell Alcoholic Beverages to Notices of Lien Sale. They must be published as a matter of public record, just like some records must be filed with the County Recorder.
    The purpose is to protect and serve the public. For instance, without a Death Notice, creditors, beneficiaries and even heirs might be unaware that a specific person has died and another is taking over the estate of the deceased. Without required, published Notices of Public Hearings, your City Council might meet without an audience. Fictitious Business Name Statements let the public know that a real Joe Blow is behind the Blow-Dry Salon. Besides, Mr. Blow just might want to tell the world, to protect his company name and to tell the world he's in business. And while not a perfect system, a public notice may be the only way to summon a defendant who has been sued but can’t be located.
    Some bankers and credit agency executives actually spend hours every week reading public notices. Marketers love to read Fictitious Business Name Statements and Notices of Bulk Transfer because they identify the owners of new businesses or the new owners of old businesses, a fresh and reliable tip sheet to solicit one's products or services. Shrewd investors cull through Trustee Sales to find distressed real estate at bargain prices.
    The Uptown Examiner publishes about 10 pages of such detailed lists in every edition.
    On the business news side, the Metropolitan staff is almost thrilled to merge with the Uptown Examiner, which publishes every Wednesday and Friday, because we enjoy good journalism as much as we do stirring up interest in San Diego business. As veterans of daily newspapers, most Metropolitan reporters and editors are frustrated with a monthly frequency. Readers tell us they want more, the highest compliment. Careful what you wish.
    Twice weekly feels much better — twice the frequency of the Kansas City-based Business Journal — because there's too much business news to wait for next week's summary of what you already know. And the twice-weekly all-business format offers less clutter than dailies that don’t deliver enough local business news. The Uptown Examiner is for people who need to know more of the important stuff and know it sooner.
    "Every publication of the Uptown Examiner will include the Daily Business Report, which already is a mainstay of our electronic services, online at sandiegometro.com and broadcast on X-BACH classical radio," says Editor Tim McClain, whose team just picked up eight journalism awards from the San Diego Press Club. "As you'd expect from the Metropolitan and Uptown Examiner, which have been publishing in San Diego a combined 74 years, the publications will continue to be filled with business and legal news and insights for people who really don’t have time to waste, written by the city's most-experienced team of San Diego business journalists. That includes more small business news, real estate, finance, telecom, biotech and politics."
    Commercially, the Uptown Examiner will continue to provide San Diego’s most reliable, cost-effective legal advertising; Fictitious Business Name Statements published for as little as $10 each, for instance. But for those who want their legal advertising to achieve the biggest bang for the buck, an additional $25 will get a Fictitious Business Name Statement also published in more than 50,000 copies of the Metropolitan, San Diego’s largest-circulation business publication by far. For a nominal fee, we’ll even file the statement with the County Recorder's office and return the official recording with proof of publication, as the Examiner has done for years. For legal advertising, call (619) 295-5432 or 233-4060, Ext. 318.
    Shortly, the Uptown Examiner's circulation will emerge as San Diego’s most exclusive group of business and professional executives, and we do mean CEOs and those who execute, including legal administrators and office managers. If you'd like to be included, we'd be proud to deliver every edition of the Uptown Examiner and the Metropolitan to your home or office for $35 a year inside San Diego County, $45 outside San Diego County, payable to Metropolitan/Uptown Examiner, 1502 Sixth Ave., San Diego, CA 92101. That's 116 editions per year.
    A subscription to the Uptown Examiner alone is $30 inside San Diego County, $40 outside. A subscription to the Metropolitan alone is $25 inside, $30 outside. So the combination price of $35 is a neat bargain.
    Finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to retiring Publisher Art Specht and his family, who've maintained the integrity and reliability of the Uptown Examiner Group since 1984, and who reached out specifically to the Metropolitan to transfer ownership because they had some notion that we'd nurture their baby. Thank you. We’ll do just that.