McClatchy Co. selling off Star Tribune

McClatchy Co. selling off Star Tribune

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. has said in a statement that they are selling off its largest newspaper, the Star Tribune.

This deal would fetch them around $530 million and the new owner of this paper would be private-equity firm Avista Capital Partners.

Interestingly, they had acquired this paper for $1.2 billion in 1998. This deal would help them reduce debt following its purchase of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain this year. That deal was worth around USD 4 billion.

The company added that this sale would give them the opportunity to pursue other “new opportunities in the newspaper industry”.

McClatchy Chief Executive Gary Pruitt said in a statement on this deal: “I’m sure it will be surprising to many people, but we regard it as consistent with our kind of disciplined, clear-eyed and strategic decision-making that we’ve applied always. I think that the company will be better off, and that the papers will be better off.”