When I and this column moved from the Sacramento Union to the Sacramento Bee 42 years ago, it was something of a culture shock.
The two newspapers had been cross-town rivals ever since both were founded, just a few years after the discovery of gold and California’s admission as a state.
The Bee, still owned by the founding McClatchy family, was clearly winning the competition in the late 20th century, but the game changed in 1966 when San Diego-based Copley Newspapers acquired the Union and declared a battle for dominance in the state capital…