Kevin McClatchy: The McClatchy's Are Not Comparable To The Bancroft Family

Newspapers, at year's end, are in the hour of the wolf. The McClatchy Co., more than others, is hurt by not only the continuing ad migration online, but also by the housing crunch -- which particularly hurts McClatchy papers in hard hit California and Florida -- and, last but not least, the much commented upon aging of the print readership. Still, Kevin McClatchy, who is a descendant of the company's founder, is sticking with McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt. McClatchy, putting a positive spin on family-owned papers, is also not a fan of comparisons of his family to the Bancrofts. From The Wall Street Journal: ''Mr. McClatchy says his family isn't comparable to the larger Bancroft family, which divided into factions this year after Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. offered to buy Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, for over $5 billion. The Bancrofts eventually agreed to sell their controlling interest, leaving some family members bitter.'' more after the jump ... '''I don't believe that if somebody came with an offer that we would be interested in doing what the Bancrofts did,' says the 44-year-old Mr. McClatchy, who recently sold a controlling stake in the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Noting that his family is smaller -- there are only eight adults with voting shares -- he says 'that probably can make things easier' for unity. The Bancrofts have about three dozen adult members. ''Until the 1980s, McClatchy family members ran the company and were deeply involved in some papers. Kevin McClatchy's father, C.K., was president from 1978 until he died suddenly in 1989. ''Today, no family members work at the company.'' The full story here.

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Kevin McClatchy: The McClatchy's Are Not Comparable To The Bancroft Family

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