Newspaper buys Bayarea.com domain

The San Jose Mercury News has bought the domain name "Bayarea.com" to develop a regional Web guide, the newspaper confirmed today.

As reported, the San Jose Mercury News last month was in talks to buy "Bayarea.com" from Santa Clara, California-based Internet service provider Bay Area Internet Solutions. The Mercury News closed the deal last Friday, according to Doug Edwards, the newspaper's online brand manager.

"It will be a guide to regional resources," Edwards said, adding that the site will launch in early summer.

Edwards would not comment on the financial terms. But a source close to the negotiations previously estimated that the companies were negotiating in the "hundreds of thousands" range.

Bay Area Internet Solutions president George Navas also confirmed the sale but declined to provide further details, citing contractual reasons.

With the domain name secured, the Mercury News adds the Bay Area region to parent company Knight Ridder's local Web guide network, Real Cities. The network already includes sites in its newspaper affiliate cities, including Miami, Detroit, Kansas City, and Philadelphia.