And Knight Ridder is no more

The New York Times is reporting that newspaper giant Knight Ridder has been purchased by the McClatchy Company for roughly $4.5 billion. As the story notes:

[M]cClatchy, which is based in Sacramento and publishes The Sacramento Bee and The Minneapolis Star Tribune, among others, was the only major newspaper company to submit a final bid for Knight Ridder, publisher of 32 daily newspapers, including such venerable papers as The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The San Jose Mercury News.

The Gray Lady article goes on to spin this as a negative sign for the newspaper industry, alluding to the major media companies that passed on Knight Ridder. At one point, the article asserts:

[The purchase] comes at a time of deep uncertainty for the print side of the newspaper industry, as readers and advertisers migrate to the Internet. That Knight Ridder was for sale at all was perceived as a sign of the industry's weakness.

And it is easy to see this side of the story – a major publication house is closing up shop, consolidation is creeping over the already-dense industry and papers aren't the sole alternative to AM radio and the evening news that they once were. But consider this: 32 newspapers for $4.5 billion comes out to over $140 million per paper. Now, other than owned office space – which can be substantial – a newspaper has few real assets; the product being sold is a mere combination of paper and ink. That this still can attract upwards of $100 million should be a friendly reminder that the press is not yet dead.

As news comes that the Tribune Company is consolidating office space and resources in Washington, it will be interesting to see how McClatchy treats its newfound empire. Gannett is certainly the largest publisher in America, and yet it still manages to hold some truly community-based newspapers throughout the states. Whether McClatchy will follow this lead or not remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, it sure is interesting that the New York Times – a newspaper owned by neither McClatchy or Knight Ridder – somehow managed to break this story.