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'Miami Herald,' 'Kansas City Star' Publisher McClatchy Files For Bankruptcy

By Avie Schneider
Published February 13, 2020 at 9:53 AM EST
McClatchy acquired Knight Ridder, the owner of the <em>Miami Herald</em> and dozens of other newspapers, in 2006 but sold off several of those papers.
Joe Skipper
/
Reuters
McClatchy acquired Knight Ridder, the owner of the Miami Herald and dozens of other newspapers, in 2006 but sold off several of those papers.

Updated at 10:12 a.m. ET

The long slide in the U.S. newspaper industry took another dramatic turn Thursday.

McClatchy, which operates the Miami Herald and The Kansas City Staramong its 30 newsrooms in 14 states, announced it has filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. Saddled with debt and pension obligations, McClatchy said it will continue to operate as normal during the process.

The company said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy in the next few months.

"McClatchy remains a strong operating company with an enduring commitment to independent journalism that spans five generations of my family,'' said Kevin McClatchy, the company's chairman and great-great grandson of its founder, James McClatchy.

"This restructuring is a necessary and positive step forward for the business, and the entire Board of Directors has made great efforts to ensure the company is able to operate as usual throughout this process," Kevin McClatchy added in a statement.

The company said it's negotiating with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal insurer of private pension plans, and its largest creditor "to address the future of our pension obligations and capital structure." The company said it expects that the PBGC will take over McClatchy's qualified pension plan.

McClatchy bought the Knight Ridder newspaper chain — which included the Miami Herald,the San Jose Mercury Newsand The Philadelphia Inquirer,in 2006. It later sold off several of the Knight Ridder papers.

A big investor declared Wednesday that newspapers are "all dying," Bloomberg reported.

Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, said "technological change is destroying the daily newspapers in America. The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and they're all dying." Munger did say that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are likely to keep going.

Munger was speaking in Los Angeles at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal Corp., where he is chairman.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Avie Schneider
See stories by Avie Schneider