McClatchy

McClatchy is an American publishing company that has been around for over 150 years. Originally based in Sacramento, California, it became part of Chatham Asset Management after facing financial difficulties in 2020.

The company runs 29 daily newspapers spread across 14 states, reaching over 1.6 million readers on weekdays and more than 2.4 million on Sundays. In 2006, it grew larger by buying Knight Ridder, which was the second-biggest newspaper company in the United States at the time. More recently, in 2024, McClatchy joined forces with A360media.

McClatchy journalists have earned nine Pulitzer prizes for their important work. The most recent win was in 2017 for uncovering secrets hidden in the Panama Papers. They have also been recognized for their reporting on important issues, showing their role in keeping people informed about what’s happening in the world.

History

On February 3, 1857, The Daily Bee was first published in Sacramento, California. Soon after, James McClatchy became the paper's editor and later a co-owner. The company grew over the years, founding The Fresno Bee in 1922 and acquiring more newspapers.

Eleanor McClatchy led the company for many years. In 1963, McClatchy bought a television station, and later expanded by purchasing many newspapers across the United States. In 2006, McClatchy bought a large newspaper group called Knight Ridder, but sold some papers to follow rules about competition.

In 2020, McClatchy faced money problems and filed for bankruptcy. A company called Chatham Asset Management bought McClatchy later that year. McClatchy continued to change and sell some of its newspapers and offices in the following years.

Business ventures

McClatchy had several different business parts to help it share news and manage newspapers.

McClatchyDC was a news agency that shared stories from its office in Washington, D.C.. It started in 2006 and stopped working in November 2025.

In 1978, McClatchy created El Dorado Newspapers to buy smaller papers in California. Over the years, it bought papers like the Gilroy Dispatch and The Morgan Hill Times. Some of these papers stopped operating or were sold to other companies.

Nando Media was an online part of McClatchy that helped with internet news. It became part of McClatchy in 1995 and was later renamed McClatchy Interactive before being fully absorbed into McClatchy in 2015.

McClatchy also had a partnership to share news with the Tribune Company through a service called McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. This partnership ended in 2014 when Tribune bought McClatchy's share.

Finally, McClatchy was part of a group that owned a paper mill near Spokane, Washington. The mill opened in 1989 and closed in 2020.

Criticism

In August 2013, McClatchy Newspapers shared information about talks between leaders of a group called Al Qaeda. They reported discussions that suggested a possible attack was being planned. This caused problems for officials trying to keep people safe, as it made it harder to watch the group's communications. After the report, the group stopped using one of their main ways to talk to each other, and officials had to find new methods to monitor their activities.

Publications

McClatchy has many daily newspapers and magazines. Some of their daily newspapers include The Beaufort Gazette, Belleville News-Democrat, The Bellingham Herald, and many more in different states across the U.S. They also publish magazines such as Closer, First for Women, and Us Weekly.

Some newspapers were bought and then later sold, like Aberdeen American News, Akron Beacon Journal, and others. These sales happened in 2006.

Formerly-owned stations

McClatchy Broadcasting started in 1936 when four radio stations in California joined together. In 1987, McClatchy sold its last four radio stations. KFBK and KAER went to Group W, and KMJ and KNAX went to Henry Broadcasting Co., so the company could focus more on its newspapers.

The stations are listed alphabetically by state and city of license. Two boldface asterisks (**) next to a station's call letters show that McClatchy built and started that station.

This list does not include a planned Channel 10 station in Sacramento, CA, which later became KXTV, owned by Sacramento Telecasters.