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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- McClatchy Co. (MNI) late Tuesday reported that total revenue in February fell 5.1% compared with the year-ago pro forma figure. Pro forma revenue includes the addition of newspapers purchased in the Knight Ridder acquisition, and excludes the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, the Sacramento, Calif.-based newspaper company said. Consolidated advertising revenue for the month decreased 5.2%, McClatchy said

CHICAGO Standard & Poor's Ratings Service (S&P) put The McClatchy Co. on negative credit watch, warning it may contemplate downgrading its rating to two notches above junk status. After Sacramento-based McClatchy's acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. last year, S&P lowered the chain's rating to "BBB," an investment grade. The negative watch indicates the rating could be downgraded to "BBB-minus." S&P has downgraded several newspaper companies in recent months, and the McClatchy warning suggested the agency was wary of continuing troubles in the industry. McClatchy opened for trading at $35.49 Friday, 10 cents above the low for its 52-week trading range...

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- McClatchy Co. (MNI) said total revenue in January fell 5.2% from a year earlier, driven by a 5.8% fall in consolidated advertising revenue in the month. Pat Talamantes, the company's chief financial officer, said the fall was disappointing, but not surprising as the comparison was against a strong month in the previous year. "January is our toughest monthly comparison for the whole of 2007," he noted.

McClatchy Posts Fourth-Quarter Loss of $279.3 Million After Taking Hit on Sale of Minn. Paper NEW YORK (AP) -- McClatchy Co., the second-largest newspaper publisher in the country, reported a fourth-quarter loss of $279.3 million Tuesday after taking a hit on the sale of its largest newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The net loss of $3.41 per share compared with earnings of $45.4 million in the same period a year earlier, or 97 cents per share. Excluding the $354.8 million loss related to the Star Tribune, earnings came to $75.5 million or 92 cents per share, well ahead of the...

SACRAMENTO Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. said Wednesday its total November revenue dropped 4.3 percent due to lower advertising and circulation sales. Revenue for the month totaled $237.1 million compared with $247.7 million in the prior-year period, which included pro forma revenue from newspapers added in the Knight Ridder acquisition. Advertising revenue sagged 4.7 percent to $202.6 million from $212.7 million a year ago, while circulation income of $27.2 million was off 3 percent from last year's $28 million. Online ad revenue gained 6.1 percent to $15 million compared with $14.1 million in the prior-year period. Average paid daily circulation slid...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- McClatchy Co. (MNI) , the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, said Wednesday that its total revenue declined 2.2% in October to $272.2 million from a year-ago pro forma total of $278.4 million. The pro forma figure is as if the company, which completed its acquisition of Knight Ridder earlier this year, had owned the same assets during last year's equivalent period. Ad sales declined 2.1% for the month to $229.6 million. National ad revenue fell 18%. Classified ad revenue fell 3.3%, with help-wanted down 10% and automotive down 1%. Classified real estate revenue rose 4.7%. Circulation revenue declined...

NEW YORK Moody's Investors Service cut its debt ratings on Knight Ridder Inc. and McClatchy Co. Wednesday and indicated that they may both be further downgraded to junk status due to a debt increase after the recent sale of Knight Ridder to McClatchy. Earlier this month McClatchy agreed to purchase Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion. The company will assume $2 billion of Knight Ridder's debt and will further borrow $3.75 billion to execute the deal. Knight Ridder and McClatchy were both given Moody's "Baa3" rating, the service's lowest investment-grade rating. Moody's said that a "significant increase in leverage" from the...

NEW YORK A union representing newspaper workers complained Friday that it was not receiving full access to financial information from The McClatchy Co. that it needs to make a bid on 12 newspapers that McClatchy wants to sell. McClatchy said earlier this month that it intended to sell the papers, which include The Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News, as part of its deal to acquire Knight Ridder Inc., the nation's second-largest newspaper company. McClatchy intends to keep the other 20 papers owned by Knight Ridder. The Newspaper Guild-CWA said it was told by McClatchy that the union...

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- A subsidiary of China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday it has agreed to buy New York-based Market News International in the first acquisition of an American news business by a Chinese company. Terms of the deal between Xinhua Financial Network and Market News International were not announced. Xinhua Financial Network, also known as Xinhua Finance, is partly owned by Xinhua, China's main government-run news agency. Market News International was founded in 1983 as a specialized agency serving traders and investors. It has offices in New York, Washington and several European capitals. "Xinhua Finance's tremendous...