McClatchy in Accords to Sell 5 More Papers
McClatchy Co. said Wednesday that it had reached agreements to sell five of the six remaining Knight Ridder newspapers it plans to shed for about $450 million.
Together with two other transactions announced previously, McClatchy now has made deals to sell 11 of the 12 Knight Ridder papers it doesn’t plan to keep. McClatchy said the sales would generate just more than $2 billion in proceeds, which it plans to use to reduce some of the debt it is taking on to acquire Knight Ridder.
The latest deals involved the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio, Duluth News Tribune in Minnesota, the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel in Indiana and the American News in Aberdeen, S.D. The Akron paper was the largest of the former Knight Ridder papers remaining for sale. It was bought by Sound Publishing Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press Ltd., a private company based in Victoria, Canada.
McClatchy said it sold the News-Sentinel to Ogden Newspapers; the Duluth News Tribune and the Grand Forks Herald to Forum Communications Co.; and the American News to Schurz Communications Inc. Separate financial terms were not disclosed for the deals.
That leaves the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., remaining to be sold. McClatchy has already announced the sale of six other larger newspapers owned by Knight Ridder. Privately held MediaNews Group Inc. bought four newspapers, and a local investor bought the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Sacramento-based McClatchy said in March that it planned to buy Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion in cash and stock plus the assumption of about $2 billion in debt, but said it would keep only 20 of Knight Ridder’s 32 newspapers, selling the other 12. Most of the 12 didn’t fit McClatchy’s criterion of being located in a growing market.
McClatchy also sold the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, where it would have faced antitrust concerns because of its ownership of the Star Tribune in neighboring Minneapolis.
The deals announced to date will transfer all 11 newspapers to private ownership. Knight Ridder was forced to put itself up for sale last fall after a revolt by its three largest shareholders, which were dissatisfied with the company’s lagging share price.
Black Press publishes more than 100 dailies and weeklies, including the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in Hawaii and several Canadian papers. In a memo to Beacon Journal employees, Black Press promised no layoffs and to recognize the paper’s current labor unions, including the Newspaper Guild-CWA.
