Singleton quickly promotes George Riggs

The responsibilities of Mercury News publisher George Riggs (pictured) appear to have increased vastly in the past few days — from running one daily newspaper, to 11 and now 33. It all started Aug. 2 when the California Newspapers Partnership, a company controlled by Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group, acquired the Merc and other former Knight Ridder papers in Northern California. On Aug. 4, MediaNews published a story saying that Riggs, 60, would "head all of the Northern California newspapers of MediaNews Group" -- 11 dailies including the Merc. Then Friday (Aug. 11), the Merc reported that Riggs would become president and chief executive officer of the California Newspapers Partnership, which publishes 33 daily newspapers -- the 11 Riggs was already overseeing in Northern California and another 22 in Southern California. Riggs succeeds Jerry Grilly and will report directly to Singleton. Grilly, seen as Singleton's No. 2 man, continues as chief operating officer of MediaNews, according to a report in the MediaNews-owned Detroit Free Press.