Sale involves Charlotte Observer

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CORRECTION

An article on the front page Monday about the sale of Knight Ridder Inc. gave incorrect information about the Philadelphia Daily News. The Daily News is published in the mornings.

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The McClatchy Co. will buy Knight Ridder Inc., the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, in a $4.5 billion deal with far-reaching implications for the print industry, The New York Times reported late Sunday, citing unnamed people involved in the negotiations.

Howard Weaver, vice president of news for McClatchy, declined to comment. Officials with Knight Ridder could not be reached to confirm the sale, but if the deal is made, it would give McClatchy control of North Carolina's two largest and most influential newspapers.

McClatchy, the Sacramento, Calif., parent of The News & Observer, won an auction for Knight Ridder, owner of The Charlotte Observer and 31 other daily newspapers, after agreeing to pay about $67 per share in cash and stock, The Times reported. The agreement, expected to be announced today, will vault McClatchy into the upper ranks of the newspaper industry, giving the company daily access to 4.8 million subscribers from Florida to Alaska.

Some media analysts have suggested that McClatchy might be taking on too much. But if the company can regain readers and improve the quality of some of Knight Ridder's troubled papers, it could calm fears that the industry is dying.

Managing the expansion will test the leadership of Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, whose biggest deal so far was the $1.4 billion purchase of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis nine years ago. The company bought The News & Observer in 1995 for $373 million. To help pay for the new purchase, analysts say Pruitt will have to trim costs by cutting jobs, selling off some papers or both.

"Each paper is going to have to stand on its own," Larry Grimes, president of W.B. Grimes, a media investment bank in Maryland, said before the sale was reported. "They're going to take a good look at the markets they're in."

At the N.C. papers

Financial analysts and journalism professors interviewed before the sale was reported Sunday night said that in North Carolina the larger McClatchy could:

* Consolidate government and political coverage. McClatchy could choose to have one team of reporters filing legislative and other stories of statewide interest to both The N&O and The Charlotte Observer. It could do the same in Washington.

* Consolidate sports coverage. McClatchy could choose to streamline sports reporting, with reporters filing stories about college and professional sports to both newspapers.

* Change business relationships. Analysts said much of the change in North Carolina likely will come in non-newsroom positions. McClatchy, for instance, could have one advertising representative handle accounts at both newspapers.

The opportunities for efficiencies could be even greater in South Carolina, where McClatchy owns several newspapers including The Herald in Rock Hill, just across the state border from Charlotte.

In other markets, changes could be more dramatic. In Philadelphia, where Knight Ridder operates both The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, McClatchy is likely to close the Daily News, analysts said. It is an afternoon tabloid that some in the business say no longer has relevance.

Industry challenges

Whatever the fallout, the sale of Knight Ridder is among the biggest developments in an industry that has been roiled by the growth of the Internet and changes in consumer habits.