Knight Ridder's sale sends fallout through newspaper industry

• Published in: Knight Ridder Tribune News Service p. 1
• Main Author: Chris O'Brien and Pete Carey
• Format: Newsletter
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Tribune Content Agency LLC 24.06.2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Shareholders of Knight Ridder will gather Monday at a downtown San Jose hotel where they are expected to vote in favor of selling the once-mighty newspaper company to Sacramento- based McClatchy for $4.1 billion. They will meet only a few hundred feet from the company's headquarters where the remaining Knight Ridder corporate employees have been packing up their personal files and photos. The vote to dismantle Knight Ridder will result in McClatchy absorbing 20 of Knight Ridder's 32 newspapers. McClatchy plans to sell the other 12, including the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, to Denver-based MediaNews Group and other companies. The deal, which includes McClatchy assuming $2 billion in Knight Ridder debt, must be approved by 80 percent of shareholders. McClatchy still has to sign a consent decree promising to sell the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- for which it already has a buyer -- to satisfy anti-trust regulators requirements at the U.S. Department of Justice. Knight Ridder and McClatchy are confident they will get both in time to file the final merger documents on Tuesday at 4 p.m.