Floyd Sparks, 87; Newspaper Publisher
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CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. — Floyd Sparks, a California newspaper publisher who turned a $6,000 investment into holdings worth $65 million when he sold them, died of cancer Tuesday night. He was 87.
Sparks paid $6,000 in 1944 for a part interest in the Hayward Review, which then published twice a week and had a circulation of 1,800. Sparks gained control of the Review in 1945 but did not expand until the early 1960s.
He then acquired community newspapers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties and eventually published four dailies and several weekly papers in the East Bay.
The Hayward paper became the Hayward Daily Review. The other dailies were The Tri-Valley Herald in Livermore, the Argus in Fremont and the San Ramon Valley Herald in Dublin.
When he sold his holdings for $65 million in 1985, the papers had a circulation of 93,000.
Sparks is survived by his wife; a son, Bob Sparks of San Leandro; a daughter, Corinne Fuller of Eugene, Ore., and four grandchildren.
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