The McClatchy Company

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The McClatchy Company
Type	Public
Founded	February 3, 1857
Headquarters	Sacramento, California
Key people	James McClatchy, founder of the Sacramento Bee
Industry	Publishing
Products	Newspapers
Revenue	$1.80 Billion and declining at 20%
Operating income	negative
Net income	negative
Employees	14,000
Website	The McClatchy Company

The McClatchy Company NYSE: MNI is an American publishing company based in Sacramento, California, that operates a number of newspapers and websites.

1 History
- 1.1 Knight Ridder purchase
2 Company infrastructure
3 I. F. Stone Medal
4 Dailies
5 Dailies acquired in Knight Ridder purchase and sold
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

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The company originated in The Sacramento Bee, which was first published on February 3, 1857, after the California Gold Rush. James McClatchy took over as editor of the Bee within a week. Having purchased Knight Ridder, the United States' second-largest newspaper company (see below) (Gannett Company is the largest), McClatchy operates 32 daily newspapers in 29 markets, with a total circulation of 3.3 million. ^[1] In addition, McClatchy operates a number of community papers that are printed with less frequency. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, acquired in 1998 and sold again in 2007 to private-equity firm Avista Capital Partners for $530 million, had the highest circulation of all McClatchy newspapers.

Most of the company's history has been in newspapers of the Golden State's Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley. It acquired its first out-of-state newspapers in 1979 and through acquisitions has grown into a nationwide company. In its first moves outside its home state, McClatchy bought the Anchorage Daily News in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Washington.

In 1990, McClatchy acquired three dailies in South Carolina: The Herald in Rock Hill, The Island Packet in Hilton Head, and The Beaufort Gazette of Beaufort.

In 1995, it acquired The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina.

In 1998, it bought the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

In January 2004, McClatchy bought the Merced Sun-Star of Merced, and five affiliated non-dailies in California's San Joaquin Valley.

On December 18th, 2008, McClatchy common stock fell below $1 per share. The market capitalization of the company fell below $100 million, down over 98% since the purchase of Knight Ridder in early 2006. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MNI&t=5y

[edit] Knight Ridder purchase

McClatchy purchased Knight Ridder, formerly the United States' second-largest chain of daily newspapers, on June 27, 2006. The purchase price of $40 per share and 0.5118 shares of McClatchy Class A stock is valued at about $4 billion in cash and stock and assumption of $2 billion in debt. This purchase added 20 papers to be retained with immediate sale of 12 publications, including the San Jose Mercury News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Those sales were completed on Aug. 2, 2006. Editor and Publisher reported in October 2006 that McClatchy revenue ending August 2006 was down over one percent from August 2005. The timing of the purchase was very poor. Since the announced purchase of Knight Ridder in March 2006, the stock of McClatchy (MNI) has declined significantly. ^[2]

[edit] Company infrastructure

As of 2008, the company has about 14,000 employees. The company has two classes of stock, allowing the founding McClatchy family to retain control. In the Knight Ridder purchase, for example, McClatchy shareholders didn't need to act at all in approving the purchase because the family had already voted their shares in favor. McClatchy has an Internet subsidiary, McClatchy Interactive (formerly known as Nando Media), which provides business support and material for Internet media nationwide (part of the News & Observer purchase). Other operations include Newsprint Ventures Inc., a consortium that operates the Ponderay newsprint mill near Spokane, Washington.

[edit] I. F. Stone Medal

In 2008, McClatchy's bureau chief in Washington, D.C., John Walcott, was the first recipient of the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence, awarded by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.^[3] In accepting the award, Walcott commented on McClatchy's reporting during the period preceding the Iraq War:

Why, in a nutshell, was our reporting different from so much other reporting? One important reason was that we sought out the dissidents, and we listened to them, instead of serving as stenographers to high-ranking [Bush administration] officials and Iraqi exiles.^[3]