Newspaper & Mailroom

McClatchy Announces Extension of Agreement to Sell Miami Land

Wednesday 31. December 2008 - The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) announced today that it has extended the closing date of its agreement to sell 10 acres of land adjacent to The Miami Herald in order to allow the buyer additional time to arrange financing in this difficult credit environment.

The purchase price remains unchanged at $190 million — $10 million of which McClatchy has already received in the form of a nonrefundable deposit.

With the acquisition of Knight-Ridder, Inc. in 2006, McClatchy inherited an agreement to sell The Miami Herald’s 10-acre parking lot with no expiration date on the deal. The contract had subsequently been amended to require closing by Dec. 31, 2008.

Under the terms of the new amendment, the buyer, Citisquare Group, LLC, has agreed to close the transaction on or before June 30, 2009, and will relinquish its right of first refusal to purchase The Miami Herald’s building and underlying land, which was included in the original agreement. Citisquare has the ability to extend the agreement for an additional six months to Dec. 31, 2009, by increasing the termination fee payable to McClatchy should the deal fail to close.

Gary Pruitt, McClatchy’s chairman and CEO, said, “We are pleased to reach an accommodation with Citisquare to preserve this valuable transaction. Maefield Development, a Citisquare partner and the developer of this land, has expressed confidence to us that the deal will close.”

Pat Talamantes, McClatchy’s vice president and CFO, said, “While we would have preferred to close the transaction at the end of this year so that we could repay debt with the proceeds, we are happy to have preserved an important deal for both parties. We believe this extension will allow time for credit markets to improve so the buyer can obtain the needed financing to complete the deal.”

Talamantes added, “Postponing the closing of this transaction does not have any funding repercussions for McClatchy under its credit agreement. We expect to continue to have ample availability under our revolving line of credit to meet our funding requirements, including public bonds maturing in April 2009. Thereafter, the company has no other bank or bond debt maturities until June 2011.”