Media conglomeration in Sacramento

McClatchy Co., the company that owns the Sacramento
Bee and the Minneapolis
Star Tribune, is set to buy Knight Ridder, the
US' second largest newspaper chain. McClatchy placed the highest bid
for the chain at $4.8 billion, or $65 a share.



It would be a huge investment for the
midsized Sacramento-based newspaper-- Knight Ridder is more than twice
the size of McClatchy with 32 papers compared to McClatchy's 12. Knight
Ridder has expressed that McClatchy would be the
best fit, journalistically, for
the chain, which owns such high quality publications as the
San Jose Mercury News,
Miami Herald and the
Philadelphia Inquirer.



Media conglomeration is risky business in any form, and there is plenty
of reason to be wary about a relatively small media firm like McClatchy
beefing itself up so quickly. But it's McClatchy's small town, dare I
say, independent mentality that results in its
quality journalism. It's better than Gannett, the publisher of
USA Today and the country's
biggest media chain, gobbling up the second biggest chain. Plus
McClatchy is one of the most profitable newspaper firms in the country,
so their expansion could lead to greater revenue for a struggling
newspaper industry.