| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NYSE: MNI |
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | February 3, 1857 |
| Headquarters | Sacramento, California |
| Key people | James McClatchy, founder of the Sacramento Bee |
| Products | Newspapers |
| Revenue | $1,143,129,000 (2009)[1] |
| Operating income | $198,512,000 (2009)[1] |
| Net income | $54,090,000 (2009)[1] |
| Employees | 14,000 |
| Website | The McClatchy Company |
The McClatchy Company is a publicly traded American publishing company based in Sacramento, California. It operates 30 daily newspapers in 15 states and has an average weekday circulation of 2.2 million and Sunday circulation of 2.8 million.[2] In 2006, it purchased Knight Ridder, which at the time was the second-largest newspaper company in the United States (Gannett was and remains the largest). In addition to its daily newspapers, McClatchy also operates several websites and community papers.
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The company originated with 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.
For most of its history, the company was focused on the newspaper business in California's Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley. It acquired its first out-of-state newspapers in 1979 and through numerous subsequent acquisitions has grown into a nationwide company in the US. 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, and 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.
The company's biggest acquisition occurred on June 27, 2006 when McClatchy purchased Knight Ridder. Because McClatchy was so much smaller than Knight Ridder at the time, one observer equated the deal as "a dolphin swallowing a small whale."[3] The purchase price of $40 per share and 0.5118 shares of McClatchy Class A stock was valued at about $4 billion in cash and stock. The company also assumed $2 billion in debt. This purchase added 20 newspapers to the company stable and the immediate sale (over the next five weeks) of 12 publications including the St. Paul Pioneer Press, San Jose Mercury News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Those sales were completed on Aug. 2, 2006
In July 2008, McClatchy sold the company's digital advertising network, "Real Cities" to a Chicago-based marketing firm named Centro. The "Real Cities" network was liquidated by Centro the following month.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, acquired in 1998 and sold in 2007 to private-equity firm Avista Capital Partners for $530 million, had the highest circulation of all McClatchy newspapers.
As of 2008, the company had 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 did not need to act in approving the purchase because the family had already voted their shares in favor.
Editor and Publisher reported in October 2006 that McClatchy revenue ending August 2006 was down over one percent from August 2005. Between the announced purchase of Knight Ridder in March 2006 and late 2009, the stock value of McClatchy (MNI) declined significantly.[4] On December 18, 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.[5] In 2010-2011 the stock has recovered off of its low, but is still down over 90% from the peak.
McClatchy has an Internet subsidiary, McClatchy Interactive (formerly known as Nando Media), which provides business support and material for Internet media (part of the News & Observer purchase). Other operations include Newsprint Ventures Inc., a consortium that operates the Ponderay newsprint mill near Spokane, Washington.
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.[6] 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.[6]
McClatchey journalists have also won dozens of Pulitzer prizes over many decades.
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