McClatchy to Sell Duluth (MN) News Tribune and Grand Forks (ND) Herald to Forum CommunicationsBack to News

SACRAMENTO, CA and GRAND FORKS, ND, JUNE 7, 2006 – The McClatchy Company today announced a definitive agreement to sell the Duluth (MN) News Tribune and the Grand Forks (ND) Herald to Forum Communications Company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed at the buyer’s request. The purchase includes certain publications and websites related to those newspapers.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger-and-acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented McClatchy in the transaction.

The Duluth News Tribune (daily circulation 45, 733 and Sunday circulation 68,488) and the Grand Forks Herald (daily circulation 31,299 and Sunday circulation 33,774) are currently owned by Knight-Ridder, Inc., which McClatchy has agreed to acquire. The parties intend to close the transaction as soon as possible after the close of McClatchy’s Knight Ridder acquisition, which is expected this summer.

Forum Communications is a media firm based in Fargo, North Dakota. The company owns a number of newspapers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead (ND).

“We are happy to see these two fine publications join the Forum Communications family,” said Gary Pruitt, CEO of McClatchy. “We are also pleased that we continue to make progress on our stated plans to complete the divestment process in a timely manner, and have been gratified by the amount of interest shown in the remaining newspapers to be sold.”

William C. Marcil, President and CEO of Forum Communications, said: “The Duluth News Tribune and the Grand Forks Herald are each great newspapers with a strong heritage of committed journalism. They will fit well within our diverse group of integrated media properties, which are united by our shared mission of serving the public trust.”

McClatchy, headquartered in Sacramento, California, is a leading newspaper and internet publisher. It publishes 12 daily and 16 non-daily newspapers located in western coastal states, North and South Carolina, and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. McClatchy has daily circulation of 1.4 million and Sunday circulation of 1.8 million. McClatchy’s newspapers include, among others, the Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee and The Modesto Bee in California, the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, the Tacoma (WA) News Tribune the Anchorage (AK) Daily News and Vida en el Valle, a bilingual Spanish weekly newspaper distributed throughout California’s Central Valley. McClatchy also operates leading local websites in each of its daily newspaper markets, offering readers information, comprehensive news, advertising, e-commerce and other services, and owns and operates McClatchy Interactive, an interactive operation that provides websites with content, publishing tools and software development. McClatchy is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (MNI).

Forum Communications Company is a diversified media company with 30 newspapers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The family owned company also has TV and radio holdings, a commercial printing division, internet businesses and web sites at each of its facilities.