McClatchy spins off 4 newspapers

NEW YORK -- MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of The Denver Post and other newspapers, is acquiring four newspapers from McClatchy Co. for $1 billion with backing from Hearst Corp., another publishing company.

The four papers -- the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, the Monterey County Herald, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- are currently owned by Knight Ridder Inc., which McClatchy is in the process of buying.

The deal, disclosed late yesterday, will strengthen MediaNews's presence in Northern California, where it already owns several papers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The four papers are among the 12 Knight Ridder properties that McClatchy has said it intends to sell.

The three Northern California papers would complement the company's existing holdings, which include the Oakland Tribune and the Marin Independent Journal.