McClatchy has been under pressure since not long after it acquired a rival newspaper chain, Knight-Ridder, for $4.5 billion in 2006. That was before the recession and the rise of digital media combined to weaken the newspaper business. The move to digital Saturdays, Mr. Forman said, may encourage digital subscriptions.
McClatchy noted on Wednesday that circulation revenue in the third quarter had exceeded advertising revenue for the first time in the company’s history — which goes back to the founding of The Sacramento Bee (as The Daily Bee) in 1857. Digital-only subscriptions grew nearly 50 percent from the equivalent period a year earlier.
But that was one of few bright spots in the report. McClatchy reported a net loss of $304.7 million during the quarter and warned that the Internal Revenue Service had declined to grant a waiver that would have permitted the company to avoid making minimum contributions to its pension plan. A $124 million contribution due next year “creates a significant liquidity challenge,” the company said.
