McClatchy to Sell Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel to Ogden NewspapersBack to News

SACRAMENTO, CA, FORT WAYNE, IN and WHEELING, WV, JUNE 7, 2006 – The McClatchy Company today announced a definitive agreement to sell the Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel to Ogden Newspapers. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed at the buyer’s request.

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

The purchase covers The News-Sentinel, a 75% stake in the Fort Wayne Joint Operating Agency (JOA) and certain publications and web sites related to the newspapers. The combined circulation of the daily newspapers in the JOA is 99,043 daily and 126,988 Sunday. The News-Sentinel is 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.

Ogden Newspapers, a private family-owned company headquartered in Wheeling (WV) publishes 39 daily newspapers, as well as related web sites, telephone directories, weekly newspapers, shoppers, and magazines in 15 states.

"Each of the papers identified for divestiture has received a tremendous amount of interest from a large variety of bidders, and the Fort Wayne JOA and The News-Sentinel was no exception,” said McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt. "This announcement is another milestone in what has been a series of very successful agreements – we couldn’t be happier."

"We’re very pleased to have been selected by McClatchy to continue the tradition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning News-Sentinel," said Ogden Newspapers CEO Robert M. Nutting. “As a family company we’re especially pleased to be associated in the Fort Wayne JOA with another long-standing newspaper family. The Inskeep family and the Fort Wayne newspapers are obviously cornerstones of northeast Indiana and we’re proud to become partners in this venture. Here in the Ohio Valley where my great-grandfather started his first newspaper we publish one morning and two separate afternoon papers, so we know and understand the benefits of the dynamic of a community served by multiple newspaper voices."

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).

Ogden Newspapers, a private family owned multi-media company headquartered in Wheeling, WV, publishes 39 daily newspapers in 10 states including eight daily newspapers in Ohio and seven in West Virginia. Ogden has daily circulation of 500,000. Ogden’s newspapers include, among others, The Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer, Wheeling (WV) News-Register, the Warren (OH) Tribune-Chronicle, Altoona (PA) Mirror , and The Maui (HI) News. Ogden operates leading local websites in each of its daily newspaper markets. Ogden publishes numerous weeklies and shoppers in these same markets. Ogden publishes and distributes more than 3,000,000 telephone directories in 53 editions in six states. In addition Ogden publishes regional and national magazines including Mother Earth News.

Ogden Newspapers traces its history to the founding of the Wheeling News by H.C. Ogden in 1890. Today the company is owned and run by his descendents the Nutting family.