News racks from a number of independent media outlets were found in a large recycling container at the San Jose Mercury News headquarters:

Representatives of Metro and the Daily Post arrived at Ridder Park Drive shortly after the discovery and were ordered off the property by Mercury News personnel. Daily Post co-publisher Jim Pavelich was threatened with arrest by security guards if he didn’t put down a rack of his that he found in the Merc’s back lot, according to an article in today’s Post.

“This is every publisher’s worst nightmare,” said Palo Alto Weekly publisher Bill Johnson when he learned Thursday morning that his boxes were sitting in a San Jose scrap pile.

Metro Newspapers executive editor and CEO Dan Pulcrano: “The Mercury News is lying.”