New CEO takes over at McClatchy

With a few swift sentences, The McClatchy Co.'s top management officially changed hands Wednesday.

During the annual shareholders meeting at Vizcaya Pavilion in midtown, Gary Pruitt concluded 28 years with the Sacramento-based company, vacating the posts of board chairman, president and CEO.

Pruitt will take over as president and CEO of the Associated Press in July. 

He introduced Patrick Talamantes, formerly McClatchy's vice president of finance and chief financial officer, as its new president and CEO.

Kevin McClatchy, a fifth-generation member of the company's controlling family and a board member since 1998, was introduced as the new chairman of the board, a position that Pruitt had also held.

Those changes were announced in March.

On Wednesday, the company also announced that Treasurer Elaine Lintecum is the new vice president of finance and CFO. Lintecum, a 24-year veteran of McClatchy's corporate finance department, has served as McClatchy's treasurer since 2002 and will retain those duties.

McClatchy owns The Bee and 29 other daily papers.

While noting the changes, Talamantes said McClatchy's management core remains intact.

"It's still the same management team that's powering this company's strategy, and it's the same playbook that we've been using these past several years," he said.

Talamantes said management remains committed to driving new revenue, growing its audience, reducing costs, producing quality journalism and paying down debt.

The McClatchy Co. is still paying off debt for the 2006 takeover of newspaper chain Knight Ridder Inc. for $4.4 billion.

The company said Wednesday that it repaid $140 million in 2011 and has repaid $70.5 million so far in 2012. Total debt now stands at $1.56 billion.

During questioning from shareholders, Talamantes and Pruitt did not rule out the possibility of McClatchy selling portions of its stakes in the online companies CareerBuilder and Classified Ventures, to pay down debt.

Talamantes cited several company growth areas, including a 14 percent increase in digital-only advertising in the first quarter. He said digital advertising now accounts for 22 percent of the company's overall advertising revenue.

Talamantes added: "I'd like to assure you – as the former CFO and as the new CEO – The McClatchy Co. is in strong financial shape and getting stronger. We are poised to benefit from improvement in the economy and we will continue to work and reorganize our operations to meet the demands and garner the opportunities of the digital age."

Also during Wednesday's meeting, 11 directors were elected to one-year terms, and Deloitte & Touche LLP was appointed the company's independent registered public accounting firm.

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