McClatchy files for bankruptcy, dumping pensions on taxpayers

It looks like newspaper owners across America are going bankrupt.

The latest: McClatchy, which once bought Knight-Ridder Newspapers just before the financial freefall hit newspapers.

McClatchy is in a string of owners of the BJ, starting with Knight Newspapers, then Knight-Ridder Incorporated, then McClatchy, then Black Press and now GateHouse Media. I think I’ve got ‘em all but it’s tough to keep track.

Sacrament-based McClatchy owns 30 newspapers, including the Miami Herald, once part of John S. Knight’s group where JSK spent his winters on the bay before going to the Kentucky Derby in Louisville the first Saturday of May and then summering in Akron at his BJ corner office.

McClatchy also owns the Kansas City Star, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Charlotte (NC) Observer.

McClatchy will lose control of its company after more than 160 years. Hedge fund Chatham Assset Management, McClatchy’s largest shareholder, will take over.

The owners’ failure to get in on the ground floor when the internet was a baby led to this financial falling off the cliff. When the baby grew up, it took the bulk of newspapers' revenue, leaving paid obituaries as the main source left.

Just like Black Press with the BJ, McClatchy will dump its $1.4 billion pension plans onto the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Taxpayers may become the main suppliers for newspaper pensions in America if the trend continues.